Charlie Jane Anders's Blog

I Can't Stop Writing About Violence

Hi! My book Lessons in Magic and Disaster has been out for a month, and I’ve been blown away by the response so far. So many people have told me that my fantastical mother-daughter story has made them cry or spoken to something in their own lives. I loved this review in Cannonball Read, where Emmalita calls Lessons “an achingly beautiful book” and talks about how personal her response to it has been. You can order Lessons everywhere! You can get a signed/personalized/doodled copy at Green Apple....

What Is Dark Academia? I Asked 3 of my Favorite Authors

Gonna be a short newsletter this week, because I’m still recovering from a month of constant travel around the release of my new novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster. (You can still get a signed, personalized and doodled copy from Green Apple! Also, come see me and some other wonderful authors at Writers With Drinks in San Francisco on Friday!)

So this week, I’m sharing a ton of material that was cut from my LitHub article about A.S. Byatt’s Possession and how it shaped Lessons in Magic and Disas...

They Call us NPCs, Because That's What they Want us To Be

I am so grateful to everyone who has read my new novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster already. And especially to everyone who’s been reviewing it, shouting about it online, and telling their friends about it. Word of mouth is everything these days, and it means the world to me that y’all are talking about this book. Thank you so much.

In case you missed it, Lessons in Magic and Disaster is about a young witch who teaches her mother how to do magic. It’s also about queer families and how we get th...

It's Another Handful of Mini-Rants!

Hi! I’m so grateful to everyone who subscribes to this weekly newsletter — and especially to the folks who’ve taken the time during my book tour and convention visits to let me know that they’re enjoying reading it.

FYI, tomorrow (Tues 9/2) I will be at Charis Books in Decatur, GA to be part of their monthly Meet Me There reading series. I’d really love to see you there, but you can also watch the whole thing online.

And in case you missed it, I have a new novel out called Lessons in Magic and D...

What We Can Learn From Superman Defeating the KKK

My book Lessons in Magic and Disaster has been out for a week now, and I’ve been so thrilled with the response so far. Bookseller Rowan Julian with The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis calls it “a firecracker of a book” and “one of my favorites of 2025!” Bookseller Julie Goodrich with Beaverdale Books in Des Moines calls it "one of my favorite books of the decade" and says "I loved every minute of this story, even when it hurt."

Upcoming events:

This weekend, I’m going to be at Dragon Con!

And then...

Lessons in Magic and Disaster is OUT TODAY. Here's the origin story...

Yes! It’s here! Lessons in Magic and Disaster has been unleashed upon the world! It’s my heartfelt, spiky, overthinky story about queer families and magical education. You can get it anywhere — but you can still get a signed/personalized/doodled copy from Green Apple. OR you can come see me on tour and get it signed and doodled!

Read on for some info about how this book came to be…

I set out to write a mother-daughter story. Then 2020 happened.

How well do you know your own mother? Could you eve...

Neither Monsters Nor Saints: Mothers can be... people?

Some street art I photographed back in May 2020 (artist unknown)

When I was in the middle of revising Lessons in Magic and Disaster, one thing worried me endlessly: I was terrified that people were going to dislike, or even hate, Serena. 

Serena is the mother of Jamie, the novel's protagonist. Serena's been depressed and isolated for the past several years, ever since her wife died, and Jamie decides to help Serena out of her funk the only way she can think of: by teaching Serena to be a witch. ...

How To Be A Resilient Writer

First and floormoose,1 I have a book that comes out in two weeks. It’s called Lessons in Magic and Disaster and it’s about a witch named Jamie who decides to rescue her mother from depression… by teaching her mother how to do magic. It’s also about the story of Jamie’s queer family, going back to the 1990s. And it’s about queer writers of the 1730s and 1740s, whose work has secret clues about magic and how to deal with scandal.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster is available for pre-order everywhere...

This Queer Actor Scandalized 1730s London

My novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster comes out Aug 19! It’s about a young trans witch who decides to rescue her depressed mother by teaching her how to do magic. It’s my most personal book yet, and I cannot wait to share it with you.

You can pre-order it anywhere, but if you pre-order from Green Apple Books I will sign, personalize and do a doodle. (Please be specific in the comments field about personalization!) Submit your receipt to get some goodies!

Also! I am going on book tour to SF, P...

Pre-Ordering Books Makes You More of a Citizen of Literature

Recently on Bluesky, I was shouting as usual about Lessons in Magic and Disaster, my novel that comes out in about a month. (It's about a young trans woman who teaches her depressed mother how to do magic, and it is full of queer joy, weirdness, complicated family stuff, unconditional love, and tenderness.) In response to my promotional warbling, somebody said they wished they could find a way to let their local indie bookstore know right now that they wanted a copy of this book reserved for the...