The Epistle
Dispatches from the revision cave + ODD SPIRITS countdown
Welcome back to the Epistle, dear reader! Toe off your shoes, slip your feet into the silky river, and skip a stone across the water I’ve got some late summer updates for you all, and exciting things to look forward to in fall!
Eight Weeks To Odd Spirits
I can’t believe it’s been six years to the day since I published ODD SPIRITS, my very first indie book, and eight weeks until the revised and revamped hardcover version hits shelves! ODD SPIRITS is a read-in-one-sitting marriage in trouble novella exploring how Rhys and Moira first met, and exactly what David did to get into Rhys’ bad books. It’s been revised for continuity and character, line edited and sensitivity read, and wrapped up in a gorgeous foiled hardcover with full page illustrations by Eleonor Piteira!
There’s still time to grab your decadently decorated edition at the links below. If you’re already a Summoner’s Circle Series fan, this will round out your reading experience quite nicely, and if you haven’t yet picked up EVOCATION, this book will serve as a tasty little introduction to the world and characters.
AND if you’re a collector, Waterstones still has a few signed special editions (or as I like to call it ODD SPIRITS: Rhys’ emo version) left for you! Grab them before they’re sold out!
Where The Hell Have You Been, Loca?
What a whirlwind summer it’s been! I had an absolute blast on my Northeastern US tour, and got to connect with so many amazing friends and booksellers and readers. If you were able to come out to an in-person event, thank you so much for sharing your energy and enthusiasm and awesome questions with me! I cherish every anecdote, every handwritten letter, every friendship bracelet, and every hug.
Since getting back home, I’ve been alternating between squeezing in every social event I possibly can to make the most of the season (I went to a Glass Animals concert this weekend and it was fantastic) and keeping my nose in a book or on my keyboard as I revise Summoner’s Circle Book Two (Rhys!Book, Catholic guilt edition) and SAVAGE BLOOMS, my erotic gothic romance coming from Orbit in 2025. Both are challenging in their own ways, but I’ve sort of unlocked a new level of zen about my revision process. I’m prioritizing my strengths and interests, really doing everything I can with thematic motifs and character and sexual tension and prose, and I’m giving myself permission to burrow down into the research process like a tiny crab happy in the sand.
In the meantime, enjoy this snippet from Rhys!Book. My client is insane, your honor. And I love him.
This Month’s Essay Topic
I’m cooking up a new Apocrypha essay for you about everyone’s favorite diskhorse topic: should I write to trend? I have Lots of Thoughts about this one as someone who has been benefitted from riding trend waves as they arose as well as someone who has been smothered by the waves when they inevitably crashed. Also, I used to work as a literary agent, so you know I have Opinions!
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Events
I have a virtual event and a live event coming to you this week, so pick your poison!
Tonight I’ll be in conversation with K.M. Enright on Instagram Live about his fabulous dark fantasy debut, MISTRESS OF LIES! Join us at 7pm ET to talk about morally grey women, queer romance, horror magic, and more!
This Thursday, August 15, I will be live and in conversation with the wonderful Ava Reid to celebrate the release of LADY MACBETH! You need this lyrical, brutal, enchanting tale of wickedness, resilience, and witchcraft.
Everything I’m Loving Lately
I’m back in the swing of reading after a mini-slump, and it’s been banger after banger over here! I thoroughly enjoyed THE SINS ON THEIR BONES, a queer Jewish fantasy about rulership, escaping toxic romantic entanglements, mysticism, and found family. Currently I am wrapping up MISTRESS OF LIES and LADY MACBETH, two of my most anticipated reads of the year, and the hype is so real! Next I’ll probably pick up Casey McQuinston’s THE PAIRING, or NICKED by M.T. Anderson, depending on where my mood-reading whims blow me.
As far as watching, I OF COURSE am all caught up on House Of The Dragon season 2 and even though I have Some Notes, I was overall very pleased with this cinematic, sweeping season. Rhaenicent, you will always be famous to me. I also finally went back and watched David Lynch’s Dune after making the theatre pilgrimage for Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two and watching the documentary about Jodorowsky's Dune that never came to be. Dark Madonna megalomaniacal space witch Lady Jessica, you will always be famous to me!
That’s all I have for you this week, dear reader! Be safe and well until we two meet again.
-S