C.S.E. Cooney's Blog, page 9

Inception Stripes! (The Undead Flying Tiger Rug)

Hey-ho! Inception Stripes!

So many of you have been so blisteringly, dazzlingly, incandescently supportive as I work to finish SAINT DEATH’S HERALD.

I’m not as fast as I want to be, and this book isn’t as short as it needs to be—REVISIONS SHOULD FIX THAT! Sort of!—but I have felt so loved and cheered through the incredibly weird human process called writing. THANK YOU!

One of the beautiful things Caitlyn Paxson has done for me during this last year and half was—in addition to listening to my chapters over SKYPE (we use Skype because it feels old-fashioned and not at all like Zooming for serious things like work)—making me these UNDEAD FLYING TIGER RUG EARRINGS.

Between Z. Z. Claybourne’s gift of Stripes the undead (flattened) (stuffed animal) flying tiger rug, and Caitlyn’s awesome earrings, which again, I reiterate, SHE MADE HERSELF, I am going to have to do some major googling to learn how to PAINT MY FACE LIKE A TIGER AND COSPLAY STRIPES!

I can’t recommend Caitlyn’s newsletter Book & Bramble or her incredible Instagram feed enough. And ZigZag has a book out… is it next month? NEXT MONTH! Local joy abounds.

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Published on March 17, 2024 12:22

Character Sketch: Negocios Infernales

Team Anxiety abounds in tonight’s game of Negocios Infernales. We’re all fairly high-strung and hilarious, and I’m having such a good time!

I’ve never played such an anxiety-ridden character who thinks so little of herself, but is still trying to live her best life… but I hope for the best for her. I hope her DOOM DOESN’T BEFALL HER. But if it does, I trust her Benefactor to fix it!

We’re just about to start Part IV: Worldbuilding, so I’d better dash! SO FAR, SO FUN!

Motivation: [card language] [your description]
SUIT: HUESO
CARD: A SINGLE TOOTH CANNOT CHEW.

Every night I dream my hair is falling out, or my teeth are falling out, or I am riding a runaway carriage with no horse pulling it, or am falling from the sky or through endless ocean depths. I do not know why; I’ve always been this way. I awake to pressures on my chest. The priestesses say I am haunted by demons. But ever since my bargain last year, I am no longer haunted. Either the priestesses were wrong, or the devil I met was no demon.

Role in Court: [card language] [your description]
SUIT: CARNE
CARD: IS YOUR PURPOSE TO BE SOMEONE ELSE’S MEAL?

The Court Confessor/The Royal Repository: being so worried about everything all the time, the priestesses who raised me in the orphanage thought it would be perfect if I got out of my own head, and listened, day in and day out, to other people’s worries, sins, crimes, atrocities, and traumas. They all say I am a very good listener: the best confessor the queen’s ever had. My hair has turned completely white since coming to court, and I’ve started to twitch uncontrollably–until my benefactor saved me.

Magic: [card language] [your description]
SUIT: ESPACIO
CARD: SEEDS SPEND MOST OF THEIR LIVES ASLEEP

My benector gave me a small amulet to wear, like a tiny seed of starlight in a small glass bubble. It grants me the power of hypnosis: both on myself and on others. I can help steer people away from their addictions, suggest alternate behaviors, make my enemies (like the priestesses who raised me) perform parlour tricks for my own amusement, and also put myself into meditative trances that have greatly aided my general health and well being. My twitching has stopped, and I have taken to dyeing my hair “Espadan crimson.”

Doom: [card language] [your description]
SUIT: LAGRIMAS
CARD: THE FLOWERS THAT BEAUTIFY THE GRAVE ARE ALSO DEAD

In the moment of my Doom, my amulet “fritzes.” A few things can happen, or maybe happen all at once. All of the good work I’ve done: soothing anxiety, easing trauma, redirecting bad habits, will backfire and those people will not only regress, they will experience far worsened conditions. Or, I start dreaming while awake what I usually dreamed while asleep: only I think it’s so real and have such a strong power that I make other people dream it too. Oh, so many horrid things will happen, to make up for me being so happy and healthy for a whole year. The priestesses were right all along; I didn’t deserve to be happy.

Name: Ufiz the Demon. (The priestesses named all their orphans after demons. I don’t know why I grew up so messed up. Really.)

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Published on March 16, 2024 15:00

The Twelve Gods of Quadiíb

I made this awhile ago, but I don’t know if I ever actually posted it. It’s just a little bit about each of the Twelve Gods from Quadiíb in the Saint Death Books.

I’ve recently been tangling with some of these gods (and ALSO a NEW one, from a DIFFERENT PANTHEON) in SAINT DEATH’S HERALD, which is so close to being done I can TASTE it

Anyway, I saw this on my desktop, and thought you might enjoy it. I’m in Brooklyn today, having my writing day at a friend’s house. WISH ME LUCK!

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Published on March 14, 2024 08:52

Locus 2024 Fundraiser: MY COZY NECROMANCY PACKAGE!

I’ve donated a COZY NECROMANCY PACKAGE to the current Locus Magazine’s fundraiser. It’s sort of a collabration with two other amazing artists: a signed copy of my book SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER, a signed bookplate with art by Shannon Potratz and a SKULL MUG by Elizabeth Paxson of Skybird Arts!

This way you can have your necromancy AND DRINK IT TOO.

I LOVE LOCUS SO MUCH. It is one of the nexuses of our genre: for publishing news, community updates, reviews and more. Ogle my UNDEAD donation (AND SO MANY MORE) at Locus’s fundraiser==-and if you can, give what you can! OR SPREAD THE WORD!

xr:d:DAF_Og-piYM:3,j:2966041718448873620,t:24031118

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Published on March 11, 2024 11:27

The Best Thing That Happened to Me This Morning

I will tell you something darling that happened first thing this morning. I’m in the bathroom, “performing my morning ablutions,” and Carlos comes to stand outside the door with music blasting.

He gets up earlier than I do, often to watch an hour of Contagious Laughter on Reddit and laugh his butt off. Like Beatrice he “hath often dreamt of unhappiness, and waked (him)self with laughing.”

But this morning he was watching a little video by the composer of the Baldur’s Gate 3 soundtrack: specifically, the really big Disney-villain-esque song during the Devil’s combat in Act III, House of Hope, called “Raphael’s Final Act.”

So many interesting things about the composition, not least of all the fine tradition of Sprechstimme, or speaking the tones in a song rather than singing them (my musician friend Mary told me, when the subject of singing devils came up in our collaboration a few months ago, that, in opera, the Devil never sings, because music is too beautiful, and he is always ugly; when his parts come, he only chants), and all kinds of other tidbits, but…

BUT! What you really have to know is this: it was 7:30 in the morning; I had just rolled out of bed; my eyes were still crusted over like a newborn puppy’s; and this song was full-out OPERA-EPIC, and playing at full blast.

And Carlos was standing outside the bathroom door, holding his laptop aloft in the air, trembling with the warm aliveness coffee, and playing the Devil’s song for me, because he thought I needed to hear it.

It was totally our “Say Anything” boombox moment, Carlos in the role of John Cusack.

Speaking of Carlos, this is happening this July:

My beloved shall is going to be one of this year’s GUESTS OF HONOR at CONvergence!!! They posted it on their Instragram today, so I wanted to share it with you. Let us know if you’ll be attending! It’s in Minneapolis! I can’t wait!

I’ve never been to a CONvergence before, but I’ve been in love with it ever since they had Amal El-Mohtar as GoH, and she glowed about the experience afterwards. It was her first time as GoH, and she said it really set the bar.

(And speaking of AMALFACE! She’s one of the Guests of Honor at READERCON this year! AAUGH I AM SO HAPPY! AAAAUGH JULY! IT IS SO FULL OF CONS AND FRIENDS! Which means… SO MANY FANCY DRESSES! We have bought fancy new luggage. Just today. Yes, yes. All our other luggage fell to pieces last year.)

Since Carlos and I are doing double-duty cons this year, both SFF writing cons AND gaming cons, I decided to give myself a break and not try to do programming at Convergence. My job, as I see it, is to follow Carlos around in FANCY FLOUNCY FUN FESTIVAL CLOTHES, and take ALL THE PICS of him being ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. What a load off.

But that reminds me: must fill out panel stuff for GenCon. Origins is coming up fast. Aaugh, wait, Cooney. Just pay attention to your novel deadline: WHICH IS TOMORROW. (But my editor’s giving me the weekend to do a bit of a spit polish on it, and read it out loud to Carlos and my mama, so that I can at least get some of the typos ironed out. But I’m TRYING to finish by tomorrow so I can TAKE THE WEEKEND to do that!)

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Published on February 28, 2024 16:46

The Twisted Folklore Histories StoryBundle

Here’s a StoryBundle for YOU! “The Twisted Folklore Histories StoryBundle!”

Here is the blog with all the relevant details ($5 for 4 books, $20 for all 12), which books are bonus, and so on. It is curated by none other than our own Mike Allen of Mythic Delirium!

I read Shadow Atlas in 2022 and thought it was so beautifully put together! I’ve read several Eugen Bacon stories, and loved every one. I’m gaga for anything Angela Slatter aka AG Slatter, as you probably know by now. And that ISOBEL YAP COLLECTION OMG.

And look–in addition to some of my books, there are my Mythic Delirium publishing buddies: Theodora Goss, Barbara Krasnoff, and Yukimi Ogawa! Also very excited to see Elwin’s collection! I mean! AMAZING STUFF!

HERE’S THE FULL LIST OF WHAT YOU’LL GET!

Chasing Whispers, Eugen Bacon (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas, Carina Bissett, Hilary Dodge and Joshua Viola, eds. (Hex Publishers)
Dark Breakers, C. S. E. Cooney (Mythic Delirium Books)
The Twice-Drowned Saint, C. S. E. Cooney (Mythic Delirium Books)
Dance on Saturday: Stories, Elwin Michael Cotman (Small Beer Press)
The Collected Enchantments, Theodora Goss (Mythic Delirium Books)
The History of Soul 2065, Barbara Krasnoff (Mythic Delirium Books)
Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn, eds. (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Like Smoke, Like Light: Stories, Yukimi Ogawa (Mythic Delirium Books)
A Feast of Sorrows, Angela Slatter aka AG Slatter (Prime Books)
Blood Mountain: Stories, Brenda S. Tolian (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Never Have I Ever: Stories, Isabel Yap (Small Beer Press)

Don’t forget to pick up your own Storybundle here: https://storybundle.com/folklore

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Published on February 15, 2024 11:23

A few fun things

One: I have a new poem out at Uncanny Magazine. It is called “fowlskin.”

Some of you may remember last August, when I wrote about attending the Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic’s free workshop called Everyday Magic Challenge. (I wrote about it here.)

Well, during that week, we met three times, one hour each, and Dr. Warman and Dr. Cleto would talk so lovingly and dazzlingly about fairy tales, feminism, power, beauty, poetry, fashion, and give us little challenges to sparkle up our days. One of those challenges led to the first draft of “fowlskin.”

Two: Serendipitously, the Good Doctoras of Carterhaugh (as I like to refer to them in my head) are hosting ANOTHER Everyday Magic Challenge NEXT WEEK.

And I just thought, if you needed some additional charm in your life, sign up and be NOURISHED. One week. Three challenges. It’s free, m’dudes.

Three: Oh, well, I have a secret, but it’s not my secret to tell. A friend of mine is getting such radically great news in their career life that it makes my stomach turn MORE CARTWHEELS every day! So that’s improving my mood all week. MAY ALL YOUR FRIENDS KNOW SUCH SUCCESS AFTER SUCH HARD WORK! AND YOU TOO!

Four: I’ve got to get back to novel writing. This was just my one-hour break. Keep wishing me luck, love, and ingenuity. And most of all… SPEED. Where’s my HASTEN SPELL when I need one???

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Published on February 08, 2024 07:16

Baldur’s Gate 3 Fan Poems: The Emperor

(Warning: Spoilers, darling. Also, mildly lurid. Read no further if you want neither.)

The Emperor

by C. S. E. Cooney

the emperor is slick as silk
vein-purple, exposed, ascended
the emperor is vulnerable, sinewy
he is unblinking, ready for me

the emperor knows he is beautiful
the emperor thinks I am beautiful
in this nowhere-sea of buoyant gravity
broken moons, osseous chips of divinity

where the emperor is, is starlight
when the emperor speaks, is velvet
when the emperor rises, I rise to meet him
lean in, caress him, he doesn’t expect me

what we share, you might share too
this connection: phrenic, electric
his manipulation, my capitulation
you yet may unravel, if you ask the right questions

it is a matter, only, of open-mindedness
it is a matter, just, of mind-wipèdness
it is a matter of splendor and predator teeth
of appendages, flexible and erotic

you who know–yes you–you know what I mean
how we sleep, and how we dream
how spent, how unrelenting, how consuming this thing
all in hushed secrecy, all-in consent

in secrecy, until our rotting curtain rips
and our spending outspills, the dream dispelled
no, do not turn away: distrustful, betrayed
the emperor could yet love us all

he could yet love us all
bodymindsoul
if only we just
let him
in

What I wrote later about this poem on Instagram:

Just posted this poem on my blog at csecooney.com, LOL. I put ONLY the title on the first page here, in case you’re not into spoilers, or, you know, the mildly naughty bits. I mean… IT’S A FAN POEM! FOR BALDUR’S GATE 3!!!

Swipe if you wanna.

Jeez, the last fan poem I wrote in love-letter form was after I read BEOWULF. I wrote “Love Song to Beowulf” because that book definitely fell into the THIS BOOK IS SO HOT I HAVE TO WRITE IT A POEM category.

This time, in Baldur’s Gate 3, it was the EMPEROR, of all characters, who got me. THE EMPEROR! WHAT???

…Though I could literally write poems about ALL the Baldur’s Gate 3 main party characters… AHEM most notably, about Karlach and Halsin, so there. And I may yet. I MAY YET. I haven’t finished playing the game yet!

Poor poets. What do we do when we’re so strung out on our first video games as adults that we turn to poetry to VENT OUR WHATEVER?

I mean, the last video game I played with either Atari’s Frogger in the late 80’s, or maybe Oregon Trail, or maybe Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago?

People. You know this already, but. VIDEO GAMES HAVE COME A LONG WAY.

That’s all. Who knows? I might be embarrassed about this tomorrow.

…nah.

Later, in comments:

We save-scummed the interaction, because we wanted to see what would happen, but didn’t actually think our character would go through with it. Still, in some alternate timeline, they DID. But then we wiped the interaction out of existence… JUST LIKE HE WOULD HAVE DONE! WHO’S THE EMPEROR NOW???

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Published on February 05, 2024 18:03

Baldur’s Gate 3: A Fan Poem

(Warning: Spoilers, darling. Also, mildly lurid. Read no further if you want neither.)

Act Three: The Emperor