Charlie Jane Anders's Blog, page 3

Has "Cloud Atlas" Become a Genre?

Thanks for reading my newsletter! If you wanna consume even more of my words, I have a novel coming out in August. It’s called Lessons in Magic and Disaster, and it’s about a young trans witch who teaches her mother how to do magic. Kirkus just gave it a very eloquent starred review, which called it “thoughtful” and “impactful” and said that there is “much to ponder, much to cry about and rage against, much to appreciate.”

You can pre-order it anywhere — but if you pre-order from Green Apple Boo...

People Are Messy. So Let's Tell Messy Stories.

Great news! My upcoming novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster just got a starred review from Library Journal. They call Lessons “a breathtaking work of magic, grief, and love.” And they say that my “vulnerable depiction of relationships and challenges within queer and trans communities is heart-wrenching but still reflects hope and optimism throughout.” I love this review so much, because they really got what this witchy book is about.

Just a reminder… if you pre-order Lessons and submit your rec...

Jane Austen Was the First Great Lady Novelist. (Or So I Was Taught.)

Just a heads up: you can pre-order my novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster from Barnes & Noble (online) and get a 25 percent discount — this expires tomorrow. Also, ICYMI I’m doing a pre-order campaign for Lessons. If you share your receipt with me before Aug 19, you can get a PDF of bonus material related to my novel All the Birds in the Sky, including a huge sneak peek of the sequel in progress. (Seeing those receipts come in greatly increases my motivation to keep working on that sequel, so th...

Too Real, Seth Rogen! My Thoughts on The Studio

Hi! First of all, a quick update… I am still working on All the Seeds in the Ground, the sequel to All the Birds in the Sky. It’s starting to look like folks who pre-order my upcoming novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster will get more than the 10,000 word preview I already promised — possibly a lot more. I’ll keep you posted. As a reminder, you also get deleted scenes from All the Birds in the Sky and an alternate ending. That’s a PDF you will receive in August if you share your receipt with me a...

How to Write Believable Characters in Unbelievable Situations

Thanks for reading my newsletter! FYI my novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster comes out in August. The wonderful Underground Books in Carrollton, GA just posted this review:

“Charlie Jane Anders casts her most powerful spell here -- transforming the raw ingredients of grief, generational trauma, smear campaigns and transphobia, with queer love, community organizing, and the heart's truest desires to craft a deeply relevant, resonant, painful, and healing masterwork, charged though with unwavering...

I Took a Break from Being Publicly Trans. Then I Came Back Stronger.

Thanks for reading my newsletter! I have a novel coming out called Lessons in Magic and Disaster (pre-order link). It’s about a trans witch who teaches her mother how to do magic, and about a mysterious novel from 1749 that holds secrets about an 18th century scandal. But really it’s about healing and unconditional love, and rediscovering desire in the midst of grief. If you pre-order it, you can get the first several chapters the sequel to All the Birds in the Sky in your inbox — details here.

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"Flaunt and Flail": Queer Art in the Age of Techno-Fascism

I have a novel coming out in August! Lessons in Magic and Disaster is a tender, hopeful story about a trans woman named Jamie and her lesbian mom, Serena. It’s been years since Serena’s wife died and some other stuff went wrong, and Serena has been hiding from the world ever since. But Jamie is a witch as well as a PhD student, so she decides the way to bring her mother back to the world is by teaching her witchcraft. And meanwhile, we see how Serena fought for LGBTQIA+ rights in the 1990s and 2...

How The Heck Can I Listen to Music While I Write?

I’ve been so overjoyed by the response to Lessons in Magic and Disaster lately. People are getting ARCs or finding it on NetGalley/Edelweiss and sharing their reactions to my fantasy novel about a complicated mother-daughter relationship. The other day, Kurt Busiek — one of my all-time writing heroes, whose work taught me so much — wrote on Bluesky that it was my best book yet, “hands down.”

Anyway, you can pre-order Lessons anywhere, or get a signed/personalized copy from Green Apple Books. (A...

It's All J.J. Abrams' Fault! (Not Really.)

Hi hi hi! I have a book coming out in August called Lessons in Magic and Disaster, and here’s a quote from it that I really like:

People talk about relationships in terms like, “I like who I am when I’m with them,” or “They make me want to be a better person,” as if the purpose of love was self-improvement. But fuck that — the purpose of love is love.

You can pre-order this book from all of the places. If you send me a receipt to this Google form, I’ll send you some bonus materials about my nove...

How to Fix a Character Who's Starting to Bore You

Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter! It’s free, but I’d be super grateful if you pre-ordered my novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster. Nicola Griffith says, “Lessons in Magic and Disaster is a hymn to queer love, joy, and persistence… A book for our times—and for all the times before this.” You can get a sneak peek at my work in progress — a sequel to All the Birds in the Sky — if you pre-order. (Details here.) And you can get a signed/personalized/doodled version from Green Apple Books.

With...