The Villain POV You've Been Waiting For

Letting Dracula speak, and EVOCATION's shiniest special edition yet

Welcome to the new year, dear reader! Bundle up in your softest scarf and sturdiest gloves and join me for a snow-dusted walk. I get to share a teaser today for something I’ve been sitting on for months, and I can barely contain my excitement.

A Battlefield of Broken Promises

You may have heard that Orbit is releasing a stunning Gold Edition of A DOWRY OF BLOOD, complete with an illustrated slipcover, pewter-foiled red clothbound hardcover, author signature, and yes, a never-before-seen Dracula POV bonus chapter. Specifically, the first chapter of A DOWRY OF BLOOD written from the perspective of Constanta’s mysterious lord.

Unmuzzling Dracula, even for one chapter, was unexpectedly fun and unexpectedly emotional. I made myself cry while writing this (at my desk at my old finance job, do as I say not as I do), and it was thrilling to delve into the psyche of a character that has loomed so large out of my body of work for years. I’m too excited about this chapter not to give you a sneak peek of one of literature’s worst boyfriends being wistful and tormented and yes, still very bad (if Orbit asks you didn’t see this from me 🔪).

If you order before the shipping date on March 4, 2025, you’ll receive 20% off this exclusive edition, which only exists because of the devotion all of you have to this story. Thank you so much for always keeping the candle lit for DOWRY <3

EVOCATION Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition

I’ve been so swept up in finishing back to back developmental edits on two upcoming books that I’ve barely even mentioned something that is filling me with fizzling, champagne joy: a teal-foiled, deliciously floppy, painfully pretty special paperback edition of EVOCATION with candlelit endpapers.

Special edition hardcovers can be prohibitively expensive for some, but this unique and lovely edition is the cost of a standard paperback (and you bet that sticker peels off cleanly). I’m thrilled that this special is more accessible to my US readers, and that there’s no book book subscription wait list to sign up for to get it. I’m a big paperback girl myself, so if you’ve been waiting for the paperback edition of this queer polyamorous dark academia-flavored urban fantasy, this is your moment! Specials often sell out before the publication date, so hustle over to B&N before it’s gone!

Still haven’t given The Summoner’s Circle a shot yet? Take a look at the blurb for this m/m/f magical adventure set in contemporary Boston.

As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.

But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door.

Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good…

The Summoner’s Circle includes ODD SPIRITS, a marriage-in-touble romance novella about Rhys and Moira (plus David hanging around like a pissy housecat) that can be read before or after EVOCATION. ODD SPIRITS is less than ten dollars on B&N for a limited time right now so hurry scurry!

And, of course, the series continues in the next full length novel ASCENSION, the Rhys!book Catholic guilt demon-summoning Christmas episode of the series.

Everything I’ve Been Loving Lately

I have been solidly in my domestic thought daughter era lately, and have been spending most of my time (when not writing) learning how to cook new recipes in my dutch oven, reorganizing and redecorating my home, and mainlining nonfiction audiobooks. Some reads I’ve really enjoyed lately are Robin Wall-Kimmemer’s new essay The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity In The Natural World, and Simon Critchley’s stuuuuuuning On Mysticism: The Experience of Ecstacy.

I’m working on essays for the paid tier of this newsletter too, including topics like burnout recovery, how to rest and reclaim your attention, writing queer and polyamorous stories in conversation with religion, and a crash course in writing the gothic.

I’m also languidly simmering some brand new stories in the back of my brain, which is so exciting to me, because I don’t get story ideas regularly. I get downloads, like parcels delivered to my brain, every couple of years or so, and then work on them until I get a new parcel. I can’t rush inspiration, and I can’t come up with anything until it strikes me like lightning, electrifying me and pushing me to act.

So in addition to keeping my established series going this year, I’ll be cooking up a little 👑 🌞 and a little ⛪️ 🐍 and maybe, if we’re all very lucky, a little 🦇.

That’s all I have for you this week, dear reader! Be safe and well until we two meet again.

-S