Welcome, seeker! You’ve been ushered into the inner sanctum of S.T. Gibson’s new monthly author newsletter; a sleeker, simpler reading experience peppered with all sorts of tasty tidbits. Maybe you’ve been here a while or maybe this is your first time in the conclave, but either way, I extend to you my most sincere salutations.
I hope every one of you is well, or as well as we can be in this calamity of a year. I’m sending my warmest wishes to you and yours.
If you’re interested in hearing more, make sure you subscribe so we don’t pass like ships in the night!
The News
I’ve got a brand new Dracula’s brides retelling coming out with Nyx Publishing in spring 2021. This is by far the darkest, sexiest, most experimental book I’ve written to date, and I’m so excited to share it with all of you.
A lyrical and dreamy reimagining of Dracula’s brides, A DOWRY OF BLOOD is a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation.
Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband’s dark secrets.
With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.
This book is perfect for you if you like
sapphic yearning at the opera
bi rep for days
obsessive love
tangled polyamorous relationships
kisses in cathedrals
gothic abandoned chateaus
eating abusive men
What I’m Loving Lately
Romance books are getting me through these dark and unduly unprecedented times. I listened to the audiobook of UNMASKED BY THE MARQUESS by Cat Sebastian and loved every minute of it. Queer regency is my favorite subgenre of romance, although sometimes, in the case of an exceptional book, I’ll venture into the waters of contemporary. Which brings me to:
The Thornchapel Series by Sierra Simone
Did you read The Secret History or The Raven Cycle and think wow, that was phenomenal but I wish it had more gothic manor homes and kinky, sacred sex in it? Have I got a series for you.
These books have been living rent-free in my head for months. The writing is lyrical and wrenching, the characters are so fully realized I feel like I know them, and the tangled relationship dynamics are deeply satisfying. This books made me believe in magic all over again, in their own special way. They are erotic romances, though, so content warning for anyone who prefers not to read explicit content! To everyone else: this is truly the best the genre has to offer.
If We Were Villians by M.L. Rio
Am I ever the target audience for this poetic, twisting mystery. I’m big into the whole dark academia thing, so it’s shocking that it’s taken me this long to get to this one. The voice of the book grabbed me right away and wouldn’t let me go, and it’s making me miss many a misspent summer running around in corsets and performing Shakespeare in the park. The book perfectly captures the dark, obsessive underbelly of theatre, and it’s tempting me to throw a socially distant fall picnic and Shakespeare reading. But I’m only about 100 pages in, so no spoilers!
I Forget Where We Were by Ben Howard
This whole album has been my yearny, autumnal companion as the leaves change, but there’s just something about the title track. It makes me ache for a doomed summer love I never knew, and weaves a moody spell every time I play it. It’s made its way onto more than one of my character playlists by now. Maybe someday I’ll write the pastoral dark academia book of my dreams, and this will be the soundtrack.
The Tarot of the Divine by Yoshi Yoshitani
A dear friend of mine gifted me this tarot deck as a “congrats on getting your agent” present, and I couldn’t be more happy with it. The deck marries imagery from worldwide folklore and religious myths with the traditional associations of the tarot, which is perfect for a religion and tarot buff like me. I haven’t started using it in readings with clients yet, but for now, I’m content to learn it slowly. Here’s the first spread we did together, in which the deck harangued me about getting to work on my edits for DOWRY.
This Sweater We Bought for Mordecai
Our beloved old man gets chilly in the fall and winter, so we got him a fashionable belly-warmer. Don’t worry, he’s a lot happier than he looks; he’s just got a grumpy face.
That’s all I’ve got for you today, but I’ll be back next month with more updates from the writing trenches and small bites of joy. Be well and be safe until we talk again!
-Saint