C.S.E. Cooney's Blog, page 2

Beautiful Review of “The Twice-Drowned Saint”

The Twice-Drowned Saint by C S E Cooney

Dear Bookforager,

I JUST LOVED THIS. LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT! THANK YOU!

Yours truly,

C. S. E. Cooney

Presenting Lady Midnight…

So, Tina Connolly and Dr. Mary Crowell and I have been for several years now collaborating (at a stately pace) on a 6-episode musical theatre podcast, and sometimes Mary posts pieces to her Patreon.

One of the things we love is that every episode stars a different character (there are six characters in all), and though the theme song is always the same tune, its instrumentals and sometimes its language changes depending on which character is starring in that episode. (One episode is just people meowing the theme in unison.)

This one belongs to Mavis Day’s (Lady Midnight herself) episode, and it’s an open post, free to listen!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/shes-in-details-128984140

Four Events in May: 2 Physical, 2 Virtual

Fiction: Impossible with Mary Soon Lee (Virtual)

May 19th, 7-8 PM Eastern, livestreamed on twitch.tv/csecooney!

Mary Soon Lee is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and winner of the AnLab Readers’ Award, Dwarf Stars Award, Elgin Award, Rhysling Award, and Utopia Award. An illustrated edition of her epic fantasy The Sign of the Dragon was published in January 2025. She hides behind a cryptically named website (marysoonlee.com) and BlueSky account (@marysoonlee.bsky.social).

Here’s Mary’s website: https://marysoonlee.com/
Here’s the webpage for The Sign of the Dragon: https://marysoonlee.com/book/the-sign-of-the-dragon/
Here’s the Amazon page for The Sign of the Dragon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1625674910/
And here’s the Bookshop.org page for The Sign of the Dragon: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-sign-of-the-dragon/b252dfb097be2837
Here’s the webpage for How to Navigate Our Universe: https://marysoonlee.com/book/how-to-navigate-our-universe/
And please to sign up for Mary’s newsletter! 

We Demand Stories about Non-Tolkien Fantasy Worlds (Physical)

Terry Pratchett once said that ‘J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints.” But the world is bigger than Middle Earth and many artists write stories from a perspective where, instead of Mt. Fuji, they see Mount Kilimanjaro, Mauna Kea, the Andes, or other landmarks. We demand stories that expand their worldbuilding beyond Tolkien- to Asia, Africa, the Americas and elsewhere. We demand stories that take us out of fantasy’s comfort zone.

This is a ticketed event! Sign up for the event and buy your tickets here, and meet us in Brooklyn!

C. S. E. Cooney & Mike Allen in Conversation (Virtual)

Authors C. S. E. Cooney and Mike Allen are long-time friends, with an adventurous history in publishing.

At various times in their careers, they’ve co-written poems, edited each other’s work, workshopped each other’s stories, and Cooney pretty much blames Allen for most of her publishing successes: including Bone Swans: Stories, a Mythic Delirium publication (Mike Allen, publisher), and World Fantasy Award-winning collection.

Now they’re in conversation about their latest novels: C. S. E. Cooney’s Saint Death’s Herald (Solaris Books) and Mike Allen’s Black Fire Concerto (Ruadán Books). Years ago, Cooney was editor of a much earlier edition of Black Fire Concerto, and this year, she was honored to narrate Mike’s deeply revised, and wildly macabre Ruadán edition.

In this book talk, Cooney and Allen will be interviewing each other about process, plot, and publishing. (And probably more!) (Not necessarily in that order!)

Stream us LIVE at twitch.tv/csecooney on May 30th, 8 PM Eastern—and join us in the chat, if you happen to have a Twitch account.

This event is FREE, but if you could take a moment and sign up for the free ticket on Eventbrite, we can get a sense of who’s coming—and that just makes us more excited to see you all!

Book Talk with Caitlin Rozakis at Word Bookstore

RSVP at Word Bookstore at this link!

Two parents and their recently-bitten-werewolf daughter try to fit into a privileged New England society of magic aristocracy. But deadly terrors await them – ancient prophecies, remorseless magical trials, hidden conspiracies and the PTA bake sale.

New York Times best-selling author Caitlin Rozakis writes fantasy with a satirical twist and a cozy heart. Her debut novel is Dreadful, but turned out not to be dreadful at all. Her contemporary romance novella Leah’s Perfect Christmas, written as Catherine Beck, was adapted as the Hallmark Channel Original Movie Leah’s Perfect Gift. After graduating from Princeton, she has had too many career changes, including mechanical engineering (cut short after the murderous robot incident), finance (amortizing tequila receivables is not as fun as drinking tequila), the American Museum of Natural History (who knew emus had birth certificates?), and a number of marketing positions, some at companies you may have even heard of. Her latest book is The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association.

In conversation with…

C. S. E. Cooney is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author, a Rhysling Award-winning poet, a game designer, an audiobook narrator, and the singer-songwriter Brimstone Rhine. Find her on social media via her LinkTree https://linktr.ee/csecooney

Postcards from a Necromancer: Helping the Locus Fundraiser

I’ve donated 3 personal letters from the protagonist of SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER and SAINT DEATH’S HERALD, the necromancer Miscellaneous “Lanie” Stones, as my perk for the Locus fundraiser.

Now, the description says “postcard”—and believe me, I have postcards. I have oodles of Kathleen Jennings postcards, WITH SKELETONS AND FLOWERS AND EVEN WOLVES all over them, and I will use these to write Lanie’s letters.

SEE THAT APRON? That’s a KATHLEEN JENNINGS APRON. I have POSTCARDS that match that apron!!! For you!

But I’m such an over-writer (I wrote two accidental novels that were meant to be novellas before I finished my official first novel, Saint Death’s Daughter), that you might get a postcard AND THEN SOME.

Lanie loves everyone, but she particularly loves people who love the SAINT DEATH books, and ADORES people who support Locus Magazine!

Check out their crowdfunding effort, and all the other amazing rewards by authors you love: https://igg.me/at/locusmag2025. Here are just a few of them, with more going up every day!

Issues of Locus Magazine including the full digital bundle.Locus mugs, t-shirts, and stickers. And enamel pins!!Signed copies and special editions of books by Brandon Sanderson, Fonda Lee, Connie Willis, and many more…Short story critiques by A.T. Greenblatt, Justina Ireland, Tobi Ogundiran and others.Artwork by Francesca Myman Zoom chats with Nisi Shawl, Fran Wilde, Connie Willis, and Holly many more.Tuckerization (your name included in a story) by Larry Niven, Tobi Ogundiran, Mary Robinette Kowal, and more. Letters from a character by C.S.E. Cooney and Fran WildeTarot Decks from Abigail LarsenGorgeous wallpapers from 2025 Hugo Nominee Maurizio ManzieriDeleted scene from Mary Robinette Kowal, Kemi Ashing Giwa, and M.R. CareyArt and art books from Donato Giancola, Ellen Klages, and Howard TaylerAnd much much more…

Launch Footage! (Kew and Willow’s archives! Plus, Twitch stream!)

I meant to put this in my last newsletter about the launches, but I forgot!

There is FOOTAGE of my Saint Death’s Herald book launch at Kew and Willow Books, as well as of the VIRTUAL LAUNCH!

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney

Oh! I forgot to put these in my newsletter! But there is FOOTAGE of my Saint Death’s Herald book launch at Kew and Willow Books, as well as of the VIRTUAL LAUNCH!

Here’s Kew and Willow’s, with Cass Khaw and Carlos Hernandez:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kew & Willow Books (@kewandwillow)

And here’s the virtual archive from my Twitch channel, with Caitlyn Paxson and Carlos Hernandez: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2444489986

In case you missed them and were curious! We didn’t get footage of the wonderful Christa Carmen in Westerly, but the memory will live on in INFAMY

May: So Far… A Play! A Talk! A Poet!

This one is mirrored from my Substack newsletter, so… enjoy it twice! Or pass it on by…

Last month’s book launch

I’ve said this in a couple of places already, but it bears repeating like a prayer: my book launch weekend of April 24th-27th was so dear. 

My mind was weirdly uneasy in the days preceding the launch, assiduously working its hamster wheel. Would my busy New York friends make it out all the way to Queens? Would any of my Rhode Island or Connecticut friends have the time to come to Westerly? Would anyone show up to the virtual launch? What if I didn’t get the calendars done in time? What if the weird Costco cake ordering method didn’t actually work, since there’s no way to VERIFY IT??? Aaaugghhh! (Et cetera, ad infinitum.)

But each of the three book launch events was pretty much perfect. Friends not only came in from the far reaches of New York City, they came from out of state (and Su Bristow came from England!) to attend the physical launches. (Su is abroad to tour her own book, The Fair Folk, but she came way out of her way to attend my launch in Queens!) Some friends came whom I hadn’t seen in years—because of the pandemic. I got to HUG THEM! And so many, many sweet comments from folks I knew in the chat during my virtual launch. 

Oh, and then! The care and love and time and thought that Cass Khaw, Christa Carmen, Caitlyn Paxson, and of course Carlos Hernandez poured into their interviews with me felt like the most profound gift. I loved that best of all. I never want to do a launch where I’m the only one on stage ever again. It’s just BETTER in CONVERSATION!

It was like three birthday parties in a weekend, and it wasn’t even my birthday! It was Herald’s! We even had cake. And, hobbit-like, we gave everyone presents: calendars, featuring Phoebe Ashcroft’s fan art of the 12 gods of Quadiíb. Carlos helped do the graphic design, and Carla Kissane came over on Wednesday to help me staple everything, which was so joyful and playful. I’m so happy.

First, Contact: a new 10-minute musical at the Sound Bites XII FestivalAt Boskone this year, Carlos and I did a Brimstone Rhine concert. He played ukulele and auxiliary percussion with the occasional solo (some “glub glubs” some “snicker snicker snacks” that sort of thing), and I sang the set we’d done at Heliosphere:Apex Predators (Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir) – always good to START with this one, because it’s FUNNY, and it’s cute, and it’s a good story about Carlos and me.Fox Girl Song Cycle 1: Carnivora (Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir) – it’s damn fun to sing, though a tongue-tangler in spots!The Lysistrata Strut (Alecto! Alecto!) – this one can be practically CHANTED, but it’s more fun with some kind of drum or percussion; we’ll see if Carlos wants to bring his cajon.Scylla on the Rocks (Alecto! Alecto!) – this is REALLY fun with the audience singing the “blub-blubs” on the refrain. A STANDARD!Sisters Lionheart (Ballads from a Distant Star) – a good chorus to sing along to! Also, I get to talk about the project!The Jub-Jub (Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir) – always good to END with this one: ROUSING FUN for the WHOLE ROOM!

We also stayed long enough to hear Romie Faienza’s set. Romie is a self-described “mild-mannered nerd bohemian,” screenwriter, director, and poet (she’s the poetry editor for Strange Horizons), and—as we found out in February—a WONDERFUL musician!

We got to talking after the concert and she says, “Hey, I may have an interesting opportunity for you in New York in April. Let me check on a few things and get back to you.” 

Then she GOT BACK TO ME. And the opportunity was a role (“Social Media 3”) in a short musical called First, Contact, a collaboration between Romie and a composer named Chris Blacker. 

For all that I had a play produced in the Estrogenius Festival in NYC years before I moved here, and mounted our own SFF folk musical in 2023, I’ve not done any other theatre here myself . The most theatre I’ve ever done in my life was during the time I lived in Rhode Island and worked with Connecticut’s Flock Theatre. And that time is now (gulp) eight years gone.

But in New York, I’ve seen a lot of theatre. I’ve supported/workshopped other people’s new work. I’ve been to Broadway shows, and off-Broadway shows. And I’ve been filled with all the concomitant longings. 

But though I am a professional actress (I keep telling myself that), I’m a voice actor. And not even one who does, like, commercials and video games. I’m an audiobook narrator. It’s a… distinct genre. Kind of like the one I write in.

So I feel like I’ve been, you know, batting out of my league this last month. My co-actors are all much closer to their theatre training (mine’s 20 years in the past), and have put it into practice much more often and recently. And their voices are huge and laser-like and soaring. And they take to choreography like gorgeous bendy things.

Theatre always makes me feel big, raw feelings, and dang. Have I been feeling them. Two days ago I came home crying. Which is not to say I haven’t been wildly happy, engaged, beamed in. I want to do this every night.

I’ve been thinking about how being in a play in New York City is like being in two plays: one is the play I’m in. The other is the play in which I’m an actor going to rehearsal in New York City. The whole city’s like a set piece. Or maybe it’s just that we’ve seen it used that way so much, as well as set pieces made to look like it. Reality and unreality collide in the hyper-real, I guess. 

Anyway! The show is tonight! The Sound Bites XII Theatre Festival, produced by Theatre Now New York. Tickets here: https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/tnny/4464

Upcoming Events

I’ll write more about these individual events later, but this month, we have two virtual events on my Twitch platform. (twitch.tv/csecooney)

Friday May 16th, 8-10 PM Eastern: Combined Reading and Interview with Mike Allen.

Mike Allen, editor and publisher of Mythic Delirium, has been a friend for a long time. He and his wife Anita are also responsible for publishing my books Bone Swans: Stories, Dark Breakers, and The Twice-Drowned Saint, in addition to my short stories “Braiding the Ghosts,” and (with Carlos, our first collaboration) “The Book of May” in Clockwork Phoenix 3 and 5 respectively. Not to mention lots of poems, back when Mythic Delirium was also a ‘zine.

Mike’s also a poet and writer—mainly, of horror—in his own right. Oh, and a journalist. The man does it all. And this year is such a year for him! He had his novel Black Fire Concerto (revised and reissued) come out with Ruádan Books, and he has another—Trail of Shadows—in the pipeline with Broken Eye Books. A banner year for him!

Since I got to NARRATE the audiobook of Black Fire Concerto a few weeks ago, and since Mike was so kind as to read Saint Death’s Herald over the last few weeks, we’re going to be interviewing each other as long-time friends and, I guess, co-workers/collaborators. And we’ll be reading from our work! It would be lovely to see you!

Then, on Monday May 19th, from 7-8 PM is our next Fiction: Impossible, this time with the poet novelist Mary Soon Lee! Definitely more on that soon!

Thank you for reading. Take care of yourselves and each other out there. There’s howling all around us. And so many teeth.

Yours truly, 

C. S. E. Cooney

Upcoming Appearances! With Links!

Fiction: Impossible with James Ryan, Monday April 21st from 7-9 PM, here: twitch.tv/csecooneySaint Death’s Herald launch at Kew and Willow in Queens, New York, with Cassandra Khaw and Carlos Hernandez. 
Register here: https://events.humanitix.com/c-s-e-cooney-book-launch
Also, you can order SIGNED COPIES from Kew and Willow, and the bookstore will ship them from you!Saint Death’s Herald author talk with Christa Carmen in Westerly, RI. RSVP at the link! Saint Death’s Herald virtual launch with Carlos Hernandez and Caitlyn Paxson, Sunday April 27th at 7 PM Eastern, here: twitch.tv/csecooney

Box of Sunshine!

In which my author copies arrive!

And with that, friends. I leave you with a face of triple-sunshine bliss. 

Look at that book! Saint Death’s Herald (my mama calls it “Harold”) is just a little guy! It’s so much SHORTER than the PINK one. Saint Death’s Daughter was a CHONK. 

I’m ever so fond. Of the little guy and the absolute UNIT that is its older sister. 

April: Month of the Herald

(Friends, sorry if you subscribe to both my blog AND my newsletter. You’ll get some mirrored content, though not all! This is one of the duplicates!)

I want to write about a lot of things, so I’ll do a little ToC at the beginning here to keep my thoughts organized (and so you can skip to whatever might be of most interest).

Upcoming FICTION: IMPOSSIBLE episode with James Ryan, co-hosted with Carlos HernandezZig Zag Claybourne’s forthcoming Amnandi Sails, sequel to Breath, Warmth & Dream.Our final actual play—live!—of Hearthglow, a D&D campaign DMed by Dr. Greg WilsonMy month of recording six dang audiobooks! AAUGH!Saint Death’s Herald—launch at Kew and Willow in Queens! A signing in Westerly, RI! Followed by… drumroll… new to this newsletter… a VIRTUAL LAUNCH!A few Herald-related awesomenesses: an essay, a cocktail, some blurbs… ya knowIn May: In conversation with Caitlin Rozakis of Dreadful in celebration of her forthcoming book The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association

Okay. That’s good. Seven is good. I’ve been busy. 

FICTION: IMPOSSIBLE with James Ryan

Monday April 21st! 7 PM EASTERN, on twitch.tv/csecooney

This will be is our second-ever episode of Fiction: Impossible: a show on Twitch wherein Carlos and I talk about what games we’re playing, what we’re reading, and also have a conversation with an author—usually one who’s just had their book out this year, or will have one shortly forthcoming.

This coming episode, we’ll have guest James Ryan on to talk about his book Statues to Silence, a mystery thriller with fantastical elements. 

I bought my copy a few weeks ago, and will be reading it the MOMENT I’m done with my next (and last, for a few weeks anyway) prep script for the slew of audiobooks I’ve been narrating this month! 

Apparently, James’s book is chock full of monsters and art history. What’s not to like? Yay! 

Zig Zag Claybourn’s Amnandi Sails!

The back cover copy of Zigs’ forthcoming Amnandi Sails, sequel to Breath, Warmth & Dream reads as follows: 

The end of one journey always begins another. As 17-year-old Amnandi Khumalo nears the completion of her oceangoing apprenticeship under the majestic Captain Maab, everything once ordinary spirals into nightmare. The raging madness of a false king pushes a ragtag crew ever outward, through seafolk and shapeshifting ravens…to the very notion of gods themselves.

A ship. A crew. A whisper. A witch.

I’m so excited for this! This is book two of the Khumalo trilogy, and Zig Zag was writing it at the same time I was writing my own sequel in a trilogy, Saint Death’s Herald. We were solidarity buddies, and would text each other “words I like today” for the last year and a half. 

If you don’t know already, I dedicated Saint Death’s Herald to Zig Zag Claybourne—for this reason, and for so many others! And now—soon—he’ll be crowdfunding to put this beauty out into the world, from his exquisite and thoughtful press, Obsidian Sky.

Sign up to be notified here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidiansky/amnandi-sails

And if you haven’t read it already, pick up Zig Zag’s gorgeous Breath, Warmth & Dream(that’s the link where you can buy it directly from the author), 

Want to know more about it? Check out the Kickstarter video for Book 1. But here are just a few of the effusive, wonder-struck, awe-filled responses about this book:

Author Cerece Rennie Murphy calls it: “So delicate and expertly held and told.” 

Author Meg Elison says, “Claybourne has turned out a jewel-toned adventure, full of mischief, mirth, and murder. 

And author Jeffrey Ford writes: “With the same unique vision, narrative energy, and humor Zig Zag Claybourne brought to the genre bending Afrofuturist space operas The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan and Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe, in his new fantasy, Breath, Warmth, and Dream, he spins a tale of magic and witchcraft set in a wholly original imaginary realm. Different, deep, and fun.”

Hearthglow: Live… The Final Episode

Well, our year of doing a D&D actual play is drawing to a close. The final episode of Hearthglow, based on the campaign setting The Forbidden Library, by Dr. Greg Wilson, (also our DM) will be a live performance at Sacred Heart University! 

Sacred Heart boasts as one of its student body our own Adam Petrosino, poet and playwright (I mean, IRL too, although he also plays a bard in our game), who is ROCKING his higher education experience with a double major in English and Theatre Arts. HE WILL NEVER REGRET IT. I speak as One Who Knows. 

For more about Hearthglow, and the podcast episodes thus far, go here: https://www.arvaneleron.com/hearthglow/

Where? The Schine Auditorium at Sacred Heart University

When? Friday, April 11th, 2025

What time? 4 p.m. Eastern

A Six-Audiobook Month

…is the reason I haven’t been posting much. And why I’m so slow at reading for blurbs and reviews… because I’m reading ALL THE PREP SCRIPTS! Oh, and I get to be in a MUSICAL on May 5th… but maybe I’ll save that news for a different newsletter. 

Thus far this month I’ve narrated: 

Dying to Read, by Lynn Cahoon for Tantor Audio

My own novel Saint Death’s Herald, for Recorded Books

The Spirit Moves by Carol J. Perry for Tantor Audio

The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen for Ruadán Books! (Well, I’m in the middle of that one, actually. Today was Day 2 of 4!)

Next week, I’m narrating  A Formal Fatality by Lynn Cahoon for Bookmark Audio

And then in a couple of weeks (yay BREAK!) (my voice says THANK YOU!) I’ll be narrating A Side Dish of Death, by T. C. LoTempio for Tantor Audio!

I dressed up every day to narrate Saint Death’s Herald. I’m doing the same thing for Mike’s book, Black Fire Concerto, since I have a LONG friendship with Mike, and with this book! It’s full dark fantasy body horror, and an EXCELLENT adventure to boot, with awesome FOX PEOPLE called VULPINES, and a lot of really icky monsters. I mean. Like. FLESHY. 

I had so much fun prepping Mike’s script, I leapt up and cosplayed with it in the middle of prepping it. No, it was NOT procrastination. I was still READING it. I just found myself reading it while swathed in a black cloak with a tea light burning in a glass skull vase, that’s all. Here’s me, with Mike’s book: 

SAINT DEATH’S HERALD Book Launch Week!!! AAUGGHHH!!! 

I’ve already posted about this! But I’ll say it again here: 

Thursday, April 24th, 7 PM at Kew and Willow, in Kew Gardens, NY

Friday, April 25th, 6:30 PM at Martin House Books in Westerly, RI

Sunday, April 27th, a VIRTUAL LAUNCH FOR THE REST OF YOU! 7 PM at twitch.tv/csecooney! COME AND JOIN US!

Herald-Adjacent Awesomeness

OH, AND HERE ARE SOME BLURBS! From Cassandra Khaw and Angela Slatter OMG! 

And I wrote this wee little essay on Writing Sequels that Fantasy Hive in the UK picked up! Thank you, Fantasy Hive! 

On Writing A Sequel – GUEST POST by C. S. E. Cooney (SAINT DEATH’S HERALD)

And then, today, this wonderful reviewer on Bluesky posted their review of Saint Death’s Daughter on their YouTube channel! Here it is: 

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/UyybNktrUxE?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

At first, I was reluctant to watch it, because WHAT IF THEY HATED IT? 

(I make it a habit not to go searching for reviews of anything I write because if it’s sufficiently awful then I get disheartened and stop writing for a while whilst I imitate Thomas Chatterton upon my fainting couch… But in this case, I was TAGGED. When I’m tagged I can hardly help myself, can I?)

BUT THE REVIEWER LOVED IT INSTEAD! They called it: “A sumptuous poetic necromantic fantasy, a book I long anticipated and deeply loved. Charming, deep, effervescent. Pure magic!” 

EEEK! YAY YAY YAY! Best of all? They concocted a COCKTAIL for Saint Death’s Daughter called “PANTHAUMA” that has ALL THE CITRUSES! 

May Appearance with Caitlin Rozakis for The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association

A few months ago, I read Caitlin’s book Dreadful and laughed my butt off. A Dark Lord who’s memory-wiped himself and then has to con everyone into believing he’s still utterly evil when he’s really just… NOT!

Then I went to Kew and Willow Books for a book talk that she and my buddy Randee Dawn were doing together for their forthcoming novels. I loved that. 

And NOW I get to do a book talk with Caitlin! For her forthcoming book The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association! I’ll be getting an ARC soon to wallow in, which pleases me greatly. 

(I’ll probably read it AFTER I prep that last audiobook in May. Phew. I still have two blurbs outstanding for a couple poetry collections by friends due this month. Must do those ASAP. Then… I think I’m good for blurbs for a while. PHEW.)

When? Saturday May 31st

Where? Word Bookstore, Jersey City

What Time? 7 PM Eastern

That’s all for now, friends. Thank you for reading this far, and, just so you know, I LOVE WHEN YOU COMMENT. Thank you to the ones who do. I love to be in conversation with you. 

I do occasionally have other thoughts than SCHEDULES, and I’m trying to figure out a way to express them here… hmmm… succinctly. 

Yours truly, 

C. S. E. Cooney

Day 1 in the Studio: Saint Death’s Herald… the Audiobook!

In 2022, when I got to record Saint Death’s Daughter the audiobook, I realized it was my moment to celebrate. Twelve years of writing that thing. Twelve drafts. The great agent hunt. My late twenties. All of my thirties. All those other works I wrote while writing it, each of them making that work better. All of the headaches. The teeth-on-concrete feeling of “this will never end, and it’s still not good.”

Whatever the book ended up being–big, weird, flawed–it was done. And it was mine.

All these celebrations were in the making, all these reviews and blurbs were coming in, but I didn’t quite know how to feel about it. My feelings rocketed around, wouldn’t settle. It was hard to feel like it was all real.

But my friend Mike Allen–the Mythic Delirium publisher who helped me make Bone Swans, and Dark Breakers, and The Twice-Drowned Saint a reality–taught me this phrase: “I stand by the work.”

Those two weeks in the studio, recording Saint Death’s Daughter, were my time to step back from a decade (plus) of doubt and despair and struggle–with this thing that I always loved but often didn’t like. Now was the time to look at work and say, “Thank you. I stand by you. Here, I pledge my voice on it.”

There’s some hoopla attending a book launch. Some press. A launch. A few signings if you’re lucky. You also get a lot of, “I always knew you’d do it,” or “I always had faith” or “it was obvious to me you’d be a success.”

It’s very sweet. It’s also… as if all those moments where I very nearly did not do it, all those fragile threads on the verge of tearing, somehow didn’t count. Were somehow, I don’t know, rendered negligible in the face of an inevitability.

What that book did not feel like was inevitable. But at some point, about midway through the 12-year process, I looked at all the years I’d already spent on it, and I thought, “If I don’t finish, what a waste of my own resources. Of my time and energy.” It would have been perfectly fine for me to trunk that manuscript. I’d trunked several others, juvenilia that I was (and am) still quite fond of). I had other books in me.

But for this one, even though I was still years away from publication, I couldn’t bear the idea of waste.

Anyway. 12 years of this kind of thinking, this back and forth, and I could finally rest. The book was being published! INCONCEIVABLE.

In early 2022, I was just only starting to recover from my deep internal fatigue since turning in the final galley proofs for Saint Death’s Daughter. What I wanted then was a celebration more intentional, more private, and much longer-lasting than a book launch and a few readings. Readers, after all–for whom I wrote this book to begin with!—could read, in a few days, what had taken me years and years to write. And then ask for the next one.

So, when I went into the studio to start recording the audiobook, I did my best to elevate the experience. My dad talks about the difference between “feast days” and “mundane days.” On a feast day, a holiday, how do you know it’s different than any other day? You dress up. Not just yourself–you decorate the space around you. For example: there’s regular dinner. And then there’s the table you spread for a holiday dinner: you use a different tablecloth. Cloth napkins. Maybe a candelabra or a bouquet of flowers or fancier dinnerware. You dress up in your best. Special shoes. Maybe you put a hat on. You make the day different. You endow it with meaning.

That’s what I did to record that week. I thought about the chapters I’d be recording that day, and I dressed to match. Now, no one looking at me would know that was what I was doing. After all, I still had to wear quiet clothes. (I call them my “ninja clothes,” but another audiobook narrator took one look at me and accused me of wearing pajamas).

But I’d put on a piece of “endowed” jewelry (Carlos got me bone jewelry to celebrate my book about necromancers), or wear a perfume oil that had a citrus note as its base (since citrus is the smell of the god of death). Every day as I walked to the studio, I’d reflect on how I was so grateful to be doing this. That I couldn’t have imagined the privilege of recording this audiobook, even though I read countless drafts of it to countless friends and family.

Today, in a few minutes, I’ll get ready to go to work. I’m recording the audiobook of Saint Death’s Herald. Funny, it doesn’t feel like it’s three years since Saint Death’s Daughter came out. But at least it wasn’t TWELVE.

The studio I’m recording Saint Death’s Herald in is in Times Square–not the one I normally go to in Elmhurst. My commute will feel different. I picked out my clothes. I’ll wear felted tiger rug earrings that Caitlyn Paxson made me, based on the character of Stripes, and a bronze raven pendant that Carlos recently got for me at Boskone. There aren’t many blackbirds in the sequel, but the shadow of the Blackbird Bride is ever with Lanie. If I get to write book 3, she’s a major player there. My shirt will be orange: one of the colors of necromancy.

It’s raining today. In the first chapter of Herald, it’s also raining. Solidarity with my protagonist… though I shan’t be raising any sweet yearling does from the dead today. Well, I will. But only with my voice, all alone in a little black box. Talking to myself. Tell future-you a story that past-me wrote for you.

It’s pretty badass.

There’s a lot of text. I have six days to do it. I’m going to be very tired by the end of the week, but I’ll have the weekend to recover and finish up next week. Wish me luck.

I’m so happy. And I’m so nervous. And so happy.

As things get darker outside the landscape of my own head, I want to share some of the things I’ve been reading:

Rebecca Solnit’s Meditations in an Emergency.

Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American

Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood, Carry Water

Anand Giridharadas’s The Ink

Robert Hubbell’s Today’s Edition Newsletter