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Today’s Women in SF&F Month guest is Veronica G. Henry! Her short fiction includes “Lessons in Virtual Reality for Wayward Women” in Many Worlds and “A Terminal Kind of Love” in FIYAH Literary Magazine. She is also the author of the historical fantasy novel Bacchanal, which was a Manly Wade Wellman Award finalist in 2022, and the near-future fantasy books in The Scorched Earth duology, which begins with The Canopy Keepers. Her latest novel is The People’s Library, a science […]

The post Women in SF&F Month: Veronica G. Henry first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

SOLD OUT in 22 minutes after the official announcement! Please join the Wait List to be notified of any additional copies after we do our manual check of the available numbers against the orders we have received. Thank you! (You can also check out the retailers below.)

Pre-order from Subterranean Press

From Lividian Publications:

Lividian Publications is proud to be publishing a deluxe signed, numbered, and slipcased Limited Edition hardcover of Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon, the first volume in his acclaimed Matthew Corbett series. Due to the massive size of the story, this deluxe special edition is split into two volumes, housed in a slipcase. Vincent Chong provided stunning color artwork for both of the dust jackets along with a full-color frontispiece and exclusive black and white illustrations for the interior.

This edition is designed to complement our Limited Editions of The King of Shadows, Seven Shades of Evil, and Leviathan, which were inspired by the editions published by Subterranean Press and Cemetery Dance for the previous books in the series. Speaks the Nightbird was originally published by a different small press and that edition doesn’t look and feel like the other Limited Editions and did not have Vincent Chong artwork. So, for someone making a complete set of the Matthew Corbett series, this new edition will match the rest of the series on the bookshelf.

Retail Price: $195
Publication Date: Fall 2026
Page Count: 888

Special Features:
• Full-color dust jacket artwork by Vincent Chong
• Full-color frontis artwork by Vincent Chong
• Black and white interior illustrations by Vincent Chong that are exclusive to the signed editions
• Includes a collectible bookmark

Deluxe Production Features:
• Offset printed on an acid-free archival quality paper stock
• A fine binding
• Hot foil stamping on the front cover and spine
• Smyth-sewn to create a more durable binding
• Twine head and tail bands
• High-quality endpapers
• Sewn-in satin ribbon page marker
• Custom-made slipcase stamped with hot foil and featuring a unique die-cut window
• Signed by Robert McCammon
• Limited to 750 signed and numbered copies

Here is a link to the product page to learn more or place your order while these limited supplies last.

Don’t forget that our books are also carried by some of our favorite small presses and retailers:

Bad Moon Books
Buchheim Verlag (Germany)
Camelot Books
Cracked and Spineless Books (Australia)
Jake’s Rare Books
Kathmandu Books
Midworld Press
Overlook Connection
Pat Cramer, Bookseller
SST Publications (UK)
Subterranean Press
Veryfinebooks
Ziesings

Thank you, as always, for your continuing support and enthusiasm. We have another very exciting announcement in the works for next week on April 10, so stay tuned.

In reply to Bill.

Yes, I’ll let you know. I did finally hear back from my editor this week, but unfortunately the edits still aren’t done. I’ll put up a post when I know more.

Thank you very much for this! Interesting stuff… I hope that progress with Book #5 continues apace!

I’m assuming that you’d tell us if the First Edits had been received?

Neil R. Jones

Neil R. Jones was born on May 29, 1909 in Fulton, New York, the youngest for four children. He has stated that the first science fiction novel he read, in 1918. Was Will N. Harben’s The Land of the Changing Sun, a lost world novel, which led him to the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

His first published story, “Vengeance of the Ages” was published in his high school yearbook in 1926, with a second story, “The Meteor of Fate” appearing the following year.

“The Death Head Meteor,” was his first professional publication, published in the January 1930 issue of Air Wonder Stories and is believed to contain the first appearance of the word “astronaut.” He had previously sold the story “The Electrical Man,” but it didn’t appear until May of that year in Scientific Detective Monthly, earning him his first cover.

January 1930 Air Wonder Stories, Cover by Frank R. Paul

One of the stories he had submitted to Gernsback was “The Jameson Satellite,” which kicked off a series of stories about Professor Jameson. When his payment for “The Electrical Man” was less than expected because Gernsback declared he had charged Jones for editorial preparation, Jones decided to submit the revised story to T. Conor Sloane at Amazing Stories. The story introduced the cyborg Zoromes, who featured in subsequent Jones stories about Professor Jameson.

Another innovation Jones introduced was the idea of a planned out, reasonably coherent future history, focusing on the cult of Durna Rangue from the 24th through the 25th centuries and which also tie in to the stories about Professor Jameson, although those are set in the extremely far future. The Jameson story “Time’s Mausoleum,” however, includes time travel to the period of Durna Rangue and refers to events there and was published prior to most of those stories’ publication.

Between 1930 and 1942, Jones published 38 stories and a two part serial, with only about eight stories published after 1942. On May 2, 1942, Jones was drafted into the army as part of the war effort, becoming Corporal Neil R. Jones. He was deployed to North Africa, serving in Morocco and Algeria before participating in the invasion of Sicily. He was also part of the D-Day invasion.

Interplanetary board game

While in England during the war, Jones married Rita Rees on June 19, 1945 in London. The couple returned to the U.S. in the fall of that year and Jones was mustered out of the army in October. Having a wife to support now, he apparently found more traditional jobs working for the New York unemployment office and possibly other book keeping positions.  IN 1946, he also invented a board game called Interplanetary during this period, which he may have sold privately. Apparently only four copies are known to exist.

On September 29, 1964, Rita was found by a neighbor with her throat cut. She died in the hospital and an investigation declared it was  self-inflicted wound and that she had been suffering health issues. Although some of Jones’s stories were reprinted, he had few new stories published after this point. He retired from the New York unemployment office in 1973. Sometime in the late 1970s, he remarried, to Leona Tice, who survived him.

Jones died on February 15, 1988 and is buried in Mount Adnah Cemetery in Fulton, New York.

Steven H Silver is a twenty-one-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference numerous times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranornal Mystery
Length: 4 hours and 55 minutes
Publisher: Sittin’ on a Goldmine Productions LLC
Release Date: February 28, 2022
ASIN: B09TLF5FJ1
Stand Alone or Series: 4th book in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries series
Source: Bought on Audiobook
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Mitzy Moon’s clairvoyant abilities are growing, but she never predicted arson. After waking to a towering inferno and loading her mentor into an ambulance, she thought things couldn’t get worse. But when the sheriff links her father to the blaze, she’s forced to take the case.

Coming up empty on love and leads pushes Mitzy to unnecessary risks. Now her otherworldly helpers, a nosy Ghost-ma and a fiendish feline, are the only ones who can save her bacon. But with break-ins, Bingo, and big storms stalling out her investigation, she may not be able to keep her dad out of jail.

Can Mitzy dig up the right clues, or will she fall for a sinister plot that puts her six feet under?”

Series Info/Source: This is the 4th book in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries series. I bought this for audiobook.

Thoughts: This was a well written book in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries. I do think that this book is better written than the previous books were. Mitzy is starting to really grow on me as a character and I enjoy many of the side characters as well. The mysteries are well done, and the supernatural elements are subtle but getting more intriguing with each book.

Mitzy wakes up to find the building next to the bookshop on fire and a dead body is found in the blaze. Of course, Mitzy’s father is linked to the incident. Mitzy must work double time and use all of the illegal scrabble facts she learned from her Ghost-ma to solve the mystery and make sure the truth is known.

While this series is a bit too fluffy for me at times, I am growing to enjoy it. I originally picked up the first three book set for audiobook because I was looking for a 4-5 hour audiobook I could read on my monthly road trips for work, which are about 4hrs total (there and back). This whole series has been a easy, quick listen that I don’t have to focus on too hard.

Initially I was not a fan of Mitzy, but she is rapidly maturing and growing as the series continues. She’s learning from her mistakes and really starting to put her newfound fortune to great use. I still enjoy some of the side characters a bit more than Mitzy but I am starting to really like Mitzy as well. We learn a bit more about her background in each book and she starts to show a bit more emotion and vulnerability as well.

There is a well-done mystery here. You have the main mystery with the building that burned down and the body found there, which I enjoyed. However, the side stories around Rory coming to town and Mitzy’s powers growing also both make progress as well. I love a good mystery that has a contained story and progresses a larger story that spans multiple books as well.

The narration for this is well done. There are a couple of small incidents where the narrator seems to confuse voices for a moment or two, but overall, this is easy to listen to and is done well.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I thought this was the most enjoyable book of the series so far. I am really growing the love Mitzy and continue to enjoy all the side characters. I like the shorter mysteries in each book but enjoy that the broader story behind Mitzy’s powers is making progress as well. I look forward to the next book in this series, “Charms and Firearms”.

In reply to Bill.

Hi Bill,
Benedict said it be out in November for book 4

Arcane Arts and Cold Steel (Pulp Hero Press, December 24, 2025)

From History to Writing Sword and Sorcery, Pulp Hero Press has us covered

In 2019, Pulp Hero Press published Brian Murphy’s Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery, which was notably covered by David C. Smith (link to review) and John O’Neill (link) on Black Gate. O’Neill highlighted that Brian Murphy was one of the earliest contributors to Black Gate, from way back in 2012! Six years have passed since the publication of Flame and Crimson; whereas the subtitle and focus of that was a history of Sword & Sorcery (S&S), Pulp Hero Press just followed with a sequel focused on writing it, penned by David C. Smith with a foreword by John O’Neill.

This post covers the complementary book Arcane Arts and Cold Steel: Writing Sword-and-Sorcery Fiction (Pulp Hero Press 2025, 298 pages).  Greg Mele recently posted a Black Gate article on how this book is The Literary Sorcerer’s Toolkit; read that to learn more about the author.

The Red Sonja series by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney (Ace Books, December 1981-May 1983). Covers by Boris Vallejo

In short, David C. Smith (Wikipedia page) is a writer of horror, historical, and suspense fiction, and is also a medical editor and essayist. He is best known for his heroic fantasy novels (i.e., Oron and the Attluma books), including his collaborations with Richard L. Tierney featuring Robert E. Howard’s Red Sonja heroine. He has written plenty of nonfiction, too, and won the 2018 Atlantean Award from the Robert E. Howard Foundation for Outstanding Achievement, Book, for Robert E. Howard: A Literary Biography.

Read this to learn the contents of the Arcane Arts and Cold Steel in more detail.

Frankly, it feels like John O’Neill has been moderating a panel on Sword & Sorcery since 2019, Brian Murphy covered the history of S&S, while David C. Smith covered writing perspectives, and Pulp Hero Press captured the transcript in book form.

Let us quickly recap some of Flame and Crimson to set up Arcane Arts and Cold Steel content.

What Sword-and-Sorcery is, and What it is Not

Brian Murphy opened with a chapter defining “What is Sword-and-Sorcery” before following with eight chapters on the linear history of it. He quoted David C. Smith from the very beginning!

We can give you clues to what it is — and what it is not. It is not high fantasy. High fantasy dresses up life and offers comfort; it is romantic. Our fiction is dark, often very dark, in the same way that unsettling dreams are never far from nightmares, and not at all comforting.
– David C. Smith, “Introduction,” Swords of Steel

Murphy’s Base S&S Elements (general, historic expectations of S&S):

• Men (and women) of action
• Dark and dangerous magic
• Personal and/or mercenary motivations
• Horror/Lovecraftian influence
• Short episodic stories
• Inspired by history
• Outsider heroes

David C. Smith reviewed Flame  & Crimson

At long last, we have a history of the sword-and-sorcery genre, and a very welcome and erudite study it is. Brian Murphy is to be commended for his honest appreciation of our frequently dismissed and often mocked genre. He intelligently surveys the expanse of the sword-and-sorcery field warts and all, low points and high, putting the genre into its proper literary perspective.

To present a linear history of the sword-and-sorcery genre is, in fact, to dissect a Yggdrasil of many branches, which is precisely what Murphy has done here…

He bookends his study with two important chapters, with his initial question “What is Sword-and-Sorcery?” ultimately addressed in the final chapter, “Why Sword-and-Sorcery?” In between, he takes us on a journey beginning with the roots of what is to come

Pulp Hero Press books. Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery by Brian Murphy (2019). Arcane Arts and Cold Steel: Writing Sword-and-Sorcery Fiction, David C Smith (2025). Arcane Arts and Cold Steel Motivated to Write, and Lie!

John O’Neill’s introduction to Arcane Arts and Cold Steel clarifies our loves of lies! He covers humans’ need for storytelling, converging from 17,000-year-old cave paintings summarizing wild hunting expeditions, to 5,000-year-old astronomical myths guiding the evolution of civilizations, to general fiction, and our need for heroic myths. To paraphrase, “there is potential inside us to accomplish things we can hardly dream of” and heroic myths fuel our fire.

O’Neill writes:

What tools do we have to teach [our children] to resist in the face of a terrible, implacable, or unexpected foe? You already know the answer. The answer is myth. Story. Fiction. Lies.

Expect a review of writing approaches, not a step-by-step S&S writing workshop

Arcana Arts and Cold Steel is about writing, but it is not a stringent workbook for the reader to follow. It is more of a compendium of reviews, collections of excerpts and quotes, and even reviews of other reviews. It is a free-form cookbook that simultaneously showcases over a hundred writers’ and reviewers’ work while categorizing examples for the writer to model. If you do not intend to write, you will walk away with a detailed survey of S&S literature and its fan base, and expand your perspectives of what S&S literature has become (and what it can be). Writers will gain access to countless examples of characters, plots, milieus, practical applications, and styles.

Over three years ago, I had the chance to peruse a draft of Arcana Arts and Cold Steel, and I encouraged David Smith to consider a more direct step-by-step guide. He replied kindly to me via email about that approach: “Who has the right to tell someone how to be their own writer?” Well, he had the credentials for that, but not the ego. Yet he was still driven to compose a book about writing S&S. In the end, the book is a splendid mix of David Smith’s insight blended with so many representations from the broader S&S community that it feels like an encyclopedic love letter to the entire fan base.  The Appendix Author Interview relates his development and approach toward the book.

Tales of Attluma by David C. Smith (Pulp Hero Press,‎ December 24, 2025). Cover by Tom Barber

You initially had the idea of having this be a book on how to write sword-and-sorcery stories.

I did. Who am I to tell anyone how to write? You sit down, you start, you learn by doing while referring to writers you like by dissecting how they’ve done what they’ve done. But my friends kept calling it Dave’s “how-to write sword-and-sorcery” book and made the case that offering guidance or ideas to readers would be helpful. Why write a book called “Writing Sword-and-sorcery Fiction” without giving people some ideas about actually writing sword-and-sorcery fiction? They were right. So I added the section doing that to complement the material in the main text.

I’d already come up with the ideas years ago on creating characters. Wrote it for an online writing group. So I had that, and when I reviewed it, I found some good common sense ideas in there. It wasn’t strictly prescriptive. I have a think skin whenever I hear a voice that sounds even vaguely imperative or prescriptive. Don’t tell me what to do! But when I thought of it as giving helpful advice or suggestions, I was fine with it. Started typing and went to town with a lot of ideas. So I hope those pages are worthwhile.

David C. Smith — Page 260-261

Arcane Arts and Cold Steel Contents 1. Sword & Sorcery Fiction: What it is and what it is not (pages 1-72)

This is a 70-page, condensed (and less chronological) version of Flame and Crimson‘s history that sets the stage for writing S&S.

2. Story Structure (pages 73-186)

• Character and Setting
• Must a protagonist be human?
• Flat and round characters
• Plots and scenes
• Style, voice, and tone
• Theme

3. The New Edge: Current Sword-and-Sorcery Fiction (187-229)

In this section, David Smith surveys the rapidly diverging contemporary flavors of Sword & Sorcery. Howard Andrew Jones (HAJ, our beloved champion of S&S and its fan base, who passed in January 2025) coined the term “New Edge” to capture a rebirth of sword and sorcery. In 2008, as Managing Editor at Black Gate, HAJ posted his ‘manifesto’ regarding a resurgence brewing in Sword & Sorcery fiction: Honing A New Edge Part 1 & Part 2  (these originally appeared in the introductory editorials  Issue 3 & 4 as “The New Edge”).

This sentiment resonated with many authors and editors, and a decade after its posting, directly inspired the creation of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine (though editor Oliver Brackenbury has a slightly different definition than that of HAJ, read Oliver’s interview at BG for more).

4. Final Words

• Appendix I: Writing Sword-and-Sorcery  Fiction (p231-252)
• Appendix II: Recommended Reading (p253-256)
• Interview with the Author (p257-264)

More David C. Smith on Writing S&S

As complete as Arcane Arts and Cold Steel is, there is more in David Smith’s head to tap. As an editor and literature guru, he has keen takes on syntax, which he sprinkles throughout the book. I privately hoped for a reprint, or relook, of his “The Writer’s Style: Sound and Syntax in Howard’s Sentences” (published in The Dark Man, February 2013). That essay, like many of The Dark Man (The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies)‘s articles, delved into Robert E. Howard’s writing. Reading Smith’s Arcane Arts and Cold Steel motivated me to reread Smith’s article which dissects the Father of S&S’s syntax:

• Natural Order of Sentences and Plain Style
• Alliterative Devices, Conventional Phrases, archaic Flourishes, and Diction (poetic
• Color
• Use of Present Tense (mixed with past)

“You sit down, you start, you learn by doing while referring to writers you like by dissecting how they’ve done what they’ve done.”
— David C. Smith

S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Black Gate, regularly reviewing books and interviewing authors on the topic of “Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction.” He has taken lead roles organizing the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium (chairing it in 2023), is the lead moderator of the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group, and was an intern for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed eight entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, and has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies. He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction; short stories of Dyscrasia Fiction have appeared in Whetstone Amateur S&S Magazine, Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades Vol I & II, DMR’s Terra Incognita, the 9th issue of Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Savage Realms Magazine, and Michael Stackpole’s S&S Chain Story 2 Project. 

 

 

 

The tour began on March 31 at BN in Arboretum at 5:00 pm. We came in a little early, were led to the back room, and shortly after they brought us out. We follow the nice bookseller to the signing space and see 200 people. And they all go, “Yay!” except that there is 200 of them and it sounds more like, “Rawr!”

We have a short Q&A, we got to signing, and we sign until 10:30 or so. Author math: 1 new book plus 3 books from home = 4 signatures x 200 = 800 signatures. 500 signatures is about 3 hours. We have an awesome time, and then the readers leave and we stay and sign stock. And more stock. And more stock.

We finally get through it and call our Uber, and it takes us home. We land, eat something – I am very proud of myself for ordering takeout to be delivered with perfect timing – it was left by the door by the time we arrived but it did not sit long enough for racoons to steal it. We eat, finish packing in a tired stupor, and pass out for about 4 hours.

We get up at 5:00 am, and by 5:30 am we are on the way to the airport with our bags and our airline apps. We get there, check in the bags, go through TSA Precheck and they send me right back. My TSA precheck is not there. It turned out that there was a typo in my KTN, the frequent flier number. Now that I know about it, I manually fix it everywhere.

We grab some kind of weird breakfast – airport food is always a little sus – and get on a plane. We land in Minneapolis at 12:30 pm. We get to the hotel, which is amazing. It’s called the Graduate and it is straight out of a Dark Academia novel. It’s right by University of Minnesota and there are lounge spaces and long, ancient looking tables everywhere. The students use it as a secondary Student Center. I stole pictures for you from their website.

It would be an amazing event space. Like I want to write a dark academia novel so we can have the book release party there.

We drop our bags off and get an Uber to Tropes and Trifles. The city is under siege. Every house and business along the road has signs ICE OUT and WE LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS. Minneapolis’ community game is strong. Deepest respect.

I will say that if you would like to visit, do not hesitate. We felt safe, and Tropes and Trifles takes great care of their visitors.

We arrive to the store about 2:45 pm and we are shown to the table filled with books. We keep signing but somehow the boxes keep coming.

We also meet a very good boy.

We presign the books until about 5:00 pm, when we get a little break to grab a bite. The only options around Tropes and Trifles were a BBQ restaurant and a bakery, so we grab an uber back to the hotel and eat at their restaurant. Nothing wrong with a BBQ, but for a signing event, you want something light.

We eat quickly, grab an uber, and arrive to the signing venue, which takes place in this amazing church. Except that there is no table. Usually there is a table, but this time, there are only chairs.

I have a pantsuit that only looks good when I am standing or half hidden behind the table. Had I know this, I would’ve worn a dress. I went with the suit because an ice storm was coming and it was cold. More on that later.

The signing starts and again, there are many people. We do a short Q&A and at some point, I do a Vanna White impression with a giant cover. Except I am not quite that fabulous, hehe. The session goes well, we switch to the signing, and we sign. And sign. Tropes and Trifles has a 6 book limit, so the presigned hardcover plus up to 6 books from home.

It takes a little bit, and we get everyone through, and arrive to the hotel around 11:00 pm. We grab a little sleep, get up at 5:00 am, and by 6:20 am, we are at the airport. We are due to fly to Chicago, where we need to catch a connecting flight to Lexington.

Remember the ice storm? It is spreading across the Midwest. Chicago is not accepting planes. The flight is delayed. We sit. We wait. We board. We sit. We wait. We deplane with our bags. We sit. We wait.

At this point I call Jocelyn, who is Tor’s publicist, and explain that there is no way we are connecting in Chicago. She magically manages to rebook us on a later flight. We should be getting into Charlotte at 5:00 pm now. The signing is at 7:00 pm. Plenty of time.

We sit. We wait.

We board. The plane is de-iced. We wait. We wait.

We finally take off.

We land in Chicago, speed march to the right gate, and stop. The domino effect is in full force. Our connecting flight is now delayed by two hours.

More texting to Jocelyn, who connects to Joseph-Beth, and the store graciously agrees to move the event to 8:30 pm. We had an unprecedented level of support for this. Thank you so much to everyone involved.

I check the email, and see a message from Mod R, which says, “Everything is fine,” which is usually a code for “The sky has fallen, but Mod R picked it up and put it back.” The website had crashed, and she had to contact the host support, who got it fixed in record time. I thank her and ask her to post the delay announcement.

We sit. We wait. We talk to other people who are sitting and waiting. We look for some place to charge things. We sit.

Finally we board and fly to Lexington. We land at 8:10 pm, grab our bags, and call an Uber, except the uber driver is 12 miles away. What? So, we cancel the uber and grab a taxi, and it takes us to Joseph-Beth. We are reasonably sure that everyone has likely left by now.

We make it to the store at 8:30 pm. Joseph-Beth – a beautiful store, by the way, and if you have a chance, you absolutely should visit – has two floors of books. As we are riding the escalator up in our travel clothes with our bags, we hear the “Yay-Rawr!”

Nobody left. We go straight into Q&A, and there are pictures of us with readers where Gordon looks amazing, because he always does, and I am wearing upscale sweatpants and a T-shirt that says “Easily Distracted By Dogs.” Sorry. It couldn’t be helped.

We get through the line – one person flew in from Germany, omg – and by that point it’s 11:30 pm and there is a lot of stock. The store graciously offers to stay with us until we sign it all, but we feel bad about keeping everyone late, so we agree to come back in the morning.

We get to Origin hotel, which is also gorgeous, fall on our faces, and fall asleep.

We are up at 6:00 am, we grab breakfast. Breakfast at the Origin in Lexington is a religious experience. Like it is so delicious, and it looks like one of those highly edited food shots. It was perfect. By 7:30 am we are in an uber and on the way to the store.

We get there, we are let in, and we sign stock. And we sign. And we sign. At 9:15 am, we had to leave for the airport, but we got through all of This Kingdom stock and we will be sending bookplates to Joseph-Beth for the rest.

We get to the airport, and the plane is delayed. We wait, we wait, we wait, we we board the plane, and then we are finally in Baltimore. As we are going to get our bags, Jeaniene Frost, who is co-signing with us, is texting me wanting to know if we are alive. I confirm that we are alive and we agree to meet for dinner. It is Gordon’s birthday.

We end up at a Brazilian steakhouse. But this point I am so tired of eating highly fried and rich food, that I find some marinated eggplant on the salad bar and I eat it like there is no tomorrow. Midway through dinner, a woman comes over and gives us this hesitant look.

Me: Hello.

She: ILOVEYOURBOOKS.

We took lovely pictures, chatted, and it was a very cute moment. She couldn’t get a ticket to the signing because it was sold out and ended up at the restaurant by pure chance. Serendipity. On tour all of our time belongs to the readers and book stores, and all of us are very glad that we were able to meet her.

The next day, we make a quick excursion to Collector Corner and Black Sheep Yarn Store, where I buy yarn I do not need. Black Sheep Yarn store is lovely and they tried very hard to explain their return policy to me. Returning yarn. Heh.

We meet with Jeaniene and her sister for a quick brunch, get back to the hotel, change clothes and arrive to the BN. We are welcomed, led to the back room, and then brought out.

No table. Oh, and it’s worse. It’s not chairs. It’s tall bar stools. Note to self: dresses next time.

We have a ton of people again, everyone is asking questions, I scroll through Maggie 2 to prove that it existed. Jeaniene Frost is MC’ing like there is no tomorrow, and then we all transition to the signing.

There were some heavy moments at this signing and some happy moments. At one point someone accidentally grabbed my phone instead of theirs, and somehow took a bunch of pictures – I must’ve happened to unlock it just before – and then apologized profusely. I texted the pictures back and took a photo for posterity. Hehe.

We signed until just after 9:00 pm, and as soon as we finished, the lights went out, and we had to go. We got back to the hotel, fell on our faces, and slept until 4:00 am, at which point the uber came to pick us up so we can be at the airport in time. We got there at 5:00, gave them our bags, somehow dragged ourselves through the security and to our gate, waited again, got on a plane, flew, landed, ubered, and at noon walked through the door of our house.

We put the bags aside, changed clothes, sat on the couch, and fell asleep until 4:00 pm, when it was time to pick up the dogs from boarding.

It was an amazing tour! We got to meet so many people. Thank you for all of the smiles and the old, well-loved books. It was our privilege to spend time with you!

And now I have the grand announcement. Ta-da!

Here we go:

• #9 New York Times Bestseller in Hardcover and Ebook
• #10 New Times Bestseller in Hardcover
• #14 USA Today Bestseller (We have #14 bestselling book out all books in US)
• #2 Sunday Times Bestseller in UK – huge thank you to Waterstones
• #6 Independent Books Store Bestseller

And we have regional lists:

• #13 North California Independent Bookstore Alliance
• #14 Southern Independent Bookstore Alliance
• #7 Mountains and Plains Independent Bookseller Association
• #8 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
• #9 Great Lakes Independent Bookseller Association

We haven’t had a true hardcover edition since Magic Triumphs. Hidden Legacy had very tiny hardcover runs, primarily aimed at libraries. We are coming back from an almost 4 year traditional hiatus (Ruby Fever came out in 08/2022.)

I love Maggie, but I also understand that it is a dense book with a lot of worldbuilding. It is not a YA/NA, it is not that spicy, and it is in a genre largely unknown to Western audiences. Books like that don’t usually hit the lists unless they have a film or TV tie ins. Tor had gone above and beyond to promote it, but between the long break in our publishing career, the hardcover price, and writing in a different genre, I didn’t expect any fireworks.

This is unbelievably amazing. I was shocked. Absolutely shocked. How did this even happen?

We worked so hard on this book, and right now all of it seems worth it.

Thank you.

You are the best.

The post The Tour and the Lists first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

LitStack Spots We’ve spotted a few other titles we want to add to our TBR…

The post Spotlight on “Homebound” by Portia Elan appeared first on LitStack.

 

The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War #2)by T. Kingfisher
What is it about:Pull three people out of prison--a disgraced paladin, a convicted forger, and a heartless assassin. Give them weapons, carnivorous tattoos, and each other. Point them at the enemy.
What could possibly go wrong?
In the sequel to CLOCKWORK BOYS, Slate, Brenner, Caliban and Learned Edmund have arrived in Anuket City, the source of the mysterious Clockwork Boys. But the secrets they're keeping could well destroy them, before the city even gets the chance...
What did I think of it:This was an entertaining read and a mostly cool conclusion to this duology.
I absolutely loved Grimehug, the gnole who joined Slate and her team in The Clockwork Boys. He and the other gnoles are my favorite of the creatures in the Clocktaur world.I also really liked Learned Edmund and Brenner.The story was fun and exciting as well. I was eager to find out how our band of misfits would deal with their predicaments and how they would complete their mission.
But the Romance...
I loved Slate, but Caliban...I know which Knight Commander inspired Caliban, and I can say that Caliban is just as annoying as I find that particular Knight Commander, so well done, I say.And mostly the romance is cute and sweet, and I might even have been satisfied with it, but near the end of the book something happens that for me would have meant the end of the relationship or should have had at least a different aftermath then it got. Now the Romance to me ended with a lopsided relationship that I don't think will last.
All that said: the overall story was still tons of fun, so this book will be added to my growing T. Kingfisher collection.
Why should you read it:It's a really fun and entertaining Fantasy read.

 

Buy The Fake Divination Offense

FORMAT/INFO: The Fake Divination Offense will release on May 19th, 2026 from Bramble Romance. It is 336 pages and available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: It's time for a new chapter in Orok's life. He's starting the rawball season on a new team, and ready to make a clean break with the Church of Uzroth (patron god of aggression). But when Orok protects cheerleader Alexo at a bar, the Church of Uzorth approaches Orok and Alexo with a proposal: be part of a fake relationship for the season to give the Church a needed PR boost, and they'll sponsor Alexo off the bench and onto the main cheerleading squad. Orok's already attracted to Alexo and he can see how much the sponsorship would mean to the man, so he agrees to the deal. But while genuine sparks fly between Orok and Alexo, Alexo has dangerous secrets in his past - ones that threaten much more than a simple sponsorship.

The Fake Divination Offense is an adventure-filled fantasy sports romance that's about all kinds of love: self-love, platonic love, and yes, romantic love. Main character Orok is a half-giant, raised in a church that believes its followers should resolve all conflict through physical violence and posturing, and should always be the alpha in the room. (Quick Note: Although Orok struggles with his church in this book, this is a queernorm world, and none of his struggles have the slightest thing to do with homophobia.) While Orok doesn't follow his church's tenets, he also wrestles with his own belief that relying on his friends just drags them down. He shouldn't bother them with his problems, he should be strong enough to deal with them on his own. Learning to accept his friends' help is just one journey this quiet giant goes on.

What's nice about this romance is that although it's a fake-dating story, from the jump Orok makes it clear to Alexo that he's interested in a real relationship. There's no dancing around what's pretend and what's real; the two have frank conversations about their feelings and what their boundaries are. That doesn't mean there aren't secrets or that their relationship is perfect. But as someone who hates when miscommunication is used, it was nice to not have to deal with "is any of this real?" type story-lines.

Speaking of not-perfect, Orok is a possessive person by nature. While he is constantly checking in on Alexo and his wants and boundaries, Orok is also the kind of person who sees the person he loves and thinks "this person is MINE, I will protect them at all costs." Naturally, Alexo has been written as the kind of love interest who is fine with this dynamic, but if possessiveness isn't your cup of tea, you might bounce a little on this. But as Alex is in a certain amount of danger throughout the story from nefarious individuals, it's a dynamic that does make sense, as Orok will do whatever it takes to keep his love safe, whether it's sucking up to people he doesn't like or physically defending Alexo from a villain.

I did also enjoy the fantasy sports aspect of the storyline. Orok plays a fantasy sport called rawball (the name is a play on a D&D term) that vaguely resembles football if magic was allowed. The rules of the sport aren't important; what IS important is Orok's journey to integrating with his new team. After a bad experience with his previous team, Orok is constantly looking for his teammates to undercut him, ignore him, or outright attack him. Learning to let go of past social traumas and to open up to his teammates is part of Orok's own growth, and a story I really enjoyed watching.

The Fake Divination Offense is another lovely story of love, healing, and acceptance from Sara Raasch. I've really enjoyed this romance duology and look forward to checking out more of her work in the future!

 

Swords and Sorcery: Stories of Heroic Fantasy, edited by L. Sprague de Camp
(Pyramid Books, December 1963). Cover by Virgil Finlay

Here are two more Sword & Sorcery anthologies edited by L. Sprague de Camp. Both are from Pyramid Books. Swords & Sorcery is 1963, with interior illustrations by Virgil Finlay. ISFDB indicates the cover is by Finlay as well, although it looks to me very much in the cover style of the second book, The Fantastic Swordsmen (1967), where the cover is attributed to Jack Gaughan. Some of the experts who visit this page probably know the truth.

1. Swords & Sorcery is a nice collection. It contains “Shadows in the Moonlight” (Conan) by Robert E. Howard, and stories by Poul Anderson (the excellent “Valor of Cappen Varra”), Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd, Gray Mouser), Kuttner (Prince Raynor), Lord Dunsany, C. L. Moore (Jirel), Clark Ashton Smith, and Lovecraft (“The Doom that Came to Sarnath”). The introduction on “Heroic Fantasy” by de Camp tends to piss some people off that I know, although I’m not one of those particularly. It suggests that S&S is purely escapist reading. I think it does make for a good escape from life’s mundanities but there’s more to it than just that.

The Fantastic Swordsmen , edited by L. Sprague de Camp (Pyramid Books, May 1967). Cover by Jack Gaughan

2. The Fantastic Swordsmen is also a pretty good collection, with stories about Conan, Elak, Brak, and Elric, along with a few new items. The cover shows us Brak. The Conan story is one that de Camp finished from a Howard outline and isn’t terribly strong. There’s also a very early story by Robert Bloch, which, while well written, shows his lack of storytelling experience at the time.

Fantastic Swordsmen also contains:

“Tellers of Tales” an intro by L. Sprague de Camp
“Black Lotus” by Robert Bloch
“The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth” by Lord Dunsany
“Drums of Tombalku” by REH and L. Sprague de Camp
“The Girl in the Gem” by John Jakes (Brak)
“Dragon Moon ” by Henry Kuttner (Elak of Atlantis)
“The Other Gods” by H.P. Lovecraft
“The Singing Citadel” by Michael Moorcock (Elric & Moonglum)
“The Tower” by Luigi De Pascalis, who also wrote an Afterword

Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for us was a review of The Imaro Saga by Charles Saunders. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.

Today’s Women in SF&F Month guest is Shay Kauwe! The Killing Spell, her upcoming novel that follows a young Hawaiian woman in a future with language magic, will be released on April 14 in the US and April 23 in the UK. Her book has received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly, which called it a “smart and satisfying urban fantasy debut [that] combines gripping mystery, tantalizing romance, and sharp cultural critique.” I’m delighted she’s here today to discuss […]

The post Women in SF&F Month: Shay Kauwe first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

Okay, so I screwed up. When UK sent the packet listing the editions, the wording was slightly confusing.

This is the regular UK hardcover.

Regular UK Hardcover

This is the International HB hardcover.

International UK HB hardcover

It is my fault. I did not confirm. The pack of promotional materials made it seem like this was the regular UK hardcover, so we advertised it as such. Nobody caught it on our end or the publisher’s. The publisher sent advertising materials with the plain edge hardcover on April 1st, which we did not see until this Monday because we were on tour. This is on me. I am very sorry.

My suggestion is to return the book. Right now the only way to get sprayed edges in UK is to buy the Waterstones Edition, so if you want the sprayed edges, I would return and purchase the Waterstones. I am not sure where or how one would get the International UK HB, but I will have the ISBN for you when Tor UK provides it. Thank you to Kat in the comments: ISBN 9781037400674.

I apologize. It was not my intention to engage in false advertising.

Everyone who purchased the plain edge UK edition expecting the painted edges will have an option to receive a free ebook copy of the upcoming Guide to Kair Toren, which will include art and bonus material. We know it’s an inadequate compensation, but we hope it will help a little. We will provide you with the details on how to get that free copy closer to the publication date, which hopefully will be around the end of May/beginning of June.

We will explore additional options to make it up to you. Mod R is currently out for an important errand, but when she returns, she will forward your emails to me and I will contact everyone who emailed personally to apologize.

The post UK Cover Correction first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Here are seven Author Shoutouts for this week. Find your favorite author or discover an…

The post 7 Author Shoutouts | Authors We Love To Recommend appeared first on LitStack.

In reply to Benedict.

No choice but to wait it out.

 

He interjects, 'And this is my mate, Jake. He was meant to come dressed as you, actually, but had a wing malfunction.'
(page 184, Do You Ship It? by Beth Reekles)

---------
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, previously hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: - Grab your current read - Open to a random page - Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) - Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their  TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Young Adult / Dystopian

A virus has turned the planet into a dystopian wasteland. After their father is bitten Dayna and Pax venture out after hearing the promise of a vaccine. What they find are religious fanatics, deviants and a group who have decided they are in charge and will crush anyone who stands against them. 

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Day of Now reminded me of so many books. I can see reflections of the John Wyndham classic, The Day of the Triffids, a book I last read in the late 1970s by Robert C. O’Brien, Z is for Zachariah and more recently a book by A.M. Geever, Love in an Undead Age. It’s all of those books and it’s none of them. I really hope young people read this one because I think it has the potential to be something they will remember reading in 50 years just like I remember reading Z is for Zachariah when I was young.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic
Length: 300 pages
Publisher: Montlake
Release Date: October 1, 2025
ASIN: B0DW4HPCMF
Stand Alone or Series: Sttand Alone
Source: Kindle First Reads
Rating: 2/5 stars

“Casey Pearson grew up with a doomsday-prepping father. At eighteen, tired of living an unconventional life, she left home, vowing never to return.

More than a decade later, a mysterious viral outbreak changes everything, including the people it infects, turning them into zombielike creatures. It’s the end of the world, and no one saw it coming—well, except for Casey’s father. With no place left to run and danger lurking around every corner, Casey is forced to return home.

Upon arrival, she’s surprised to find that her dad has hunkered down with a group of survivors, including her archnemesis, Blake Morrison, the high school bully who made Casey’s teenage years a living hell.

While struggling to live on the compound, face outside threats, and survive alongside her handsome enemy, Casey will learn that although the world has ended, hers is just beginning.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this on ebook from Kindle First Reads.

Thoughts: This was an easy and quick read, and I appreciated how Rose tried to combine a zombie apocalypse story with an enemies to lovers comedy romance. The characters were immature, and the action scenes poorly written. The ending was just unhinged…and not in a good way.

After the death of her mother, Casey’s father changed into a huge doomsday prepper. Casey, unlike her classmates, spent every hour of her free time digging trenches and prepping for an apocalypse. Her classmates, especially Blake Morrison, teased her relentlessly. Fast forward to present day where Casey is doing her residency as a medical doctor. She hasn’t talked to her dad in years and is engaged to a perfectly nice fellow doctor. Then the world ends, and Casey is left running for her life to seek shelter at the very compound she helped build, only to find her worst enemy (Blake) is also taking shelter there.

This is a cute story with some gruesome zombie apocalypse elements. I enjoyed the premise of their being different types of results of this viral infection (biters, nomes, and nothing). I also enjoyed Casey’s background being raised as a prepper; it left her much more aware and able to survive, and explained her ability to “make it” in this world. After the beginning of the book, there isn’t a ton of plot here.

There were a number of things I thought were just okay or flat out didn’t like. Casey acts very immature for her age and makes some bad decisions that are very out of character and seem to be there only to move the plot forward (especially at the end of the book). When she and Blake are reunited, Blake acts like a colossal asshole, which is odd for someone who wants to apologize and get to know Casey better. It seems borderline abusive, and I didn’t really enjoy their relationship. The characters in here have very little depth and are all stereotypes of characters you have already read about. The dialogue is immature, more like middle-schoolers arguing, than snappy or witty.

The way weapons were used throughout was silly and inaccurate. Casey using throwing stars to “one-shot” everything is a fantasy that doesn’t even happen in fantasies. This bothered me throughout the story, throwing stars just don’t do that much damage. The action scenes in general needed work and were poorly written and hard to follow.

The end of this book made absolutely no sense to me. I am not sure if it is setting up for a sequel or trying to make the point that this is a treacherous world now. It felt clunky and awkward. I thought I had missed a chapter or something and went back to make sure I hadn’t accidentally missed a part, but no….it was just a really awkward ending.

My Summary (2/5): Overall this was a quick, mildly entertaining read with an intriguing premise around zombies that quickly gets dropped and wanders into a somewhat absurd rom-com tale instead. I thought the characters were immature and didn’t like the chemistry between Blake and Casey. The action scenes are poorly written with a lot of inaccuracies (even trying to look past my disbelief that you can kill someone with a ninja star to the head from a long distance). The ending was the worst part, not making sense and stopping completely in the middle of a scene. This needed better editing. It was a quick read, so I didn’t waste a ton of time on it, but I don’t plan on picking up any more Jeneva Rose books in the future.

I guess if you aren’t fan of zombie/fantasy literature and are looking for a gory rom-com that dips a toe into the zombie/fantasy world you might enjoy this. Anyone who has read a lot of zombie stories or is big into fantasy will be frustrated by all the inaccuracies and poor portrayals here. I actually didn’t like the romance that much either, but some people might be into “that big strong man being verbally abusive when he really wants to apologize” vibe…I am not one of those people.