Tag: book review

October 1, 2025

Literary Judging and Book Review: Binding the Cuckoo

Last month, I promised that I’d share a little about my experience judging this year’s British Fantasy Award for Best Independent Press. I also have a review for an enchanting new romantasy novel, so let’s start with that, and I’ll say more about judging later.

Binding the Cuckoo Review

Binding the Cuckoo is the first foray into independent publishing from Gabriela Houston, author of The Bone Roots and several other novels rooted in Slavic mythology. Well, perhaps it counts as the second, since I got to know Gabriela as the editor for the Kickstarter-backed, beautifully illustrated anthology Whispers in the Earth: World Folklore Reimagined, to which I contributed a Canadian ghost ship story.

Gabriela kindly sent me a review copy of Binding the Cuckoo. As a fan of her previous work, I was excited to see what her historical fantasy romance had in store.

Here’s the blurb:

1899: A fay grifter seeks fortune and security.

Love was never the plan.

In the late Victorian era, a technological marvel allows scientists to open rifts into the realms of legend. Powerful creatures, weakened and stripped of their memories, are brought to serve the whims of the wealthy elite…

Hare, a young woman with a mythical secret finds herself trapped, facing an unenviable future.

When an equally desperate schoolmistress, Miss Anne Bonningham offers her a chance at freedom, they embark on a daring plan. Disguised as “Miss Edwina Walker,” Hare navigates the treacherous waters of London high society, solely focused on securing a marriage and escaping her past.

However, amidst the glittering balls and intricate social games, as hidden agendas surface and a vengeful figure from her past threatens to expose her true identity, Hare must make a choice: embrace a life of comfort and security or choose freedom and a love that could shatter the very foundation of her world.

If you like your fantasy light, but heavy on the sexual tension, this one’s for you. Hare is an outsider protagonist with few options, and I sympathized with her right away.

In the alternate history, “mythics” are otherworldly beings (mostly fairies) brought into our world, where their magic weakens and memories fade, to serve humans. Hare was betrayed by someone she trusted, and has little idea of who she was before. When offered freedom through an alliance with a somewhat unsavory character, there’s little else she can do.

So, we’re off to London, where Hare poses as Miss Anne Bonningham’s American relative seeking a match. If she can secure a good marriage, both she and her “matchmaker” will have their currently dire futures secured.

Cue the high-society socializing, the kind (if a bit silly and arrogant) duke who takes a shine to Hare, and his lawyer friend who clashes with her again and again, with sparks flying. You could call it a love triangle, but where one option represents security and the other a deeper connection, it’s pretty clear how things are going to turn out. The fun is in getting there.

Along the way, we encounter a variety of mythics who can’t pass as human like Hare can, and struggle to get work. Their interactions are nuanced, as they can magically recognize each other but humans can’t recognize them in the same way. I’d love to know more about them and their world, which is only lightly sketched out. Maybe in a future book?

Binding the Cuckoo is an easy, elegant read. It comes out on October 15, and you can pre-order it now.

Literary Judging: What’s It Really Like?

Any writer reading this is probably intimately familiar with the process of being judged. You sent a piece or pitch to a publication, or a manuscript to an editor or publisher, you wait, and most of the time, you get another rejection letter to add to your growing collection.

I’ve been on both sides of the desk. Along with writing, I used to edit and read submissions for literary magazines. Several years ago, I sat on a panel judging a magazine grant for a Canadian province I’ve never lived in. And this year, I was one of five judges for the British Fantasy Award for Best Independent Press.

The winners of this year’s British Fantasy Awards will be announced at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, which takes place from October 30-November 2. So I won’t be sharing any spoilers here, but I have some insights into the process of judging a literary award.

How do you judge something as subjective as the quality of written work? You start by assembling a panel of judges, who all bring different experiences and opinions. Our group had some degree of consensus around quality, strengths, and weaknesses after reading the material – and it was a lot of material. I read a sample of books from each press, for a total of (I think) 20, and there are more in a box if I want to dive into them later.

Some judging panels agree on criteria and give scores to the material. With others, it’s a more fluid discussion – more of an art than a science.

Both panels I’ve been on have been very respectful groups. I imagine the rest of the British Fantasy Awards were similar, with thoughtful, generous debates and discussions of each work’s respective merits. There were differences of opinion, but everyone had fair input. It came down to a nail-biter, and I got to be the deciding vote.

What I witnessed from award judging was just how many good books, publishers, and works might not win awards, but offer high quality, unique perspectives, and valuable contributions to their genres. That’s something I found when reading submissions for magazines, as well. There’s so much good stuff out there! There aren’t spaces or awards for all of it, and not being “chosen” doesn’t make a work any less worthy.

Someone else winning an award, or a rejection of your story, is not a rejection of you.

Some people like to imagine rivalries in the writing world. Maybe they exist, but that hasn’t been my experience. With speculative fiction especially, I see a bunch of geeks getting excited over each other’s books. With publishing more broadly, when one book does well, that can create space for others, and excited readers are more likely to read something else.

There are unkind people and poor behavior in every industry. But my experience judging an award was one of respect and collegiality. From what I’ve seen, the future of independent publishing in British SFF looks hopeful.

September 2, 2025

Book Review: Better Living Through Alchemy

I’ve been meaning to finish and review Evan J. Peterson’s occult detective novella Better Living Through Alchemy since it came out last year. Better late than never, right?

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of books in order to judge the Best Independent Press award for the British Fantasy Awards. There are a few of us judging each award, and next month, I’ll tell you more about what the experience of judging a literary award is like.

Once I finished that stack of books, I looked at my TBR and there it was, waiting for me – Better Living Through Alchemy, which Evan (who I met through a Clarion West writing group) had kindly given me a review copy for.

At 166 pages, this is a slim but satisfying read, a fast-paced page turner. It’s also not your typical detective novel.

Private investigator Kelly Munn uses her magical and psychic abilities to investigate cases in Seattle along with her cousin and assistant, Critter. One day a client comes in with an equally strange mystery for her to look into. A drug called bardo has appeared on the streets. It’s killing people and leaving their bodies mutated in bizarre ways. It’s a compelling case – and paycheck – that Kelly and Critter can’t refuse.

The characters are charming, with the banter between detectives and clients reading as entertaining and the caring bickering between the two cousins as believable. I enjoyed how the story low-key has a mostly queer cast. Kelly is bi or pan, and Critter is trans and some variety of queer as well.

While Critter and some of the other characters use magical techniques like tarot and dowsing to investigate the mystery, Kelly’s abilities are the most interesting aspect of the heroes’ magic. She has clairolfaction – she can smell feelings and images, which help her intuit leads for the cases she investigates. (Her ability doesn’t seem too far off from synesthesia, just a bit more magical.) Her third-person point of view is peppered with experiences like smelling lies, “green words,” and a mixture of “rightness and wrongness” that smells like “wood smoke and rain mingled.”

Like her colleagues, she supplements her natural abilities with an interesting sort of magical technology. She free-associates words to come up with insights and, at one point, uses something called a “Dreamachine” that once belonged to William Burroughs. I think I want one.

The plot drives the storytelling forward, with one thing leading to another. Resurrection! Demons! Tree-people! Lost gods! The appearance of the drug itself! The tension ramps up, backstories are revealed, twists and turns appear, and everything feels engrossing. By the end of the story, things are… mostly explained, and maybe some of them don’t need to be.

All I can say is, it took me too long to read this book. Don’t be like me – read it now.

Author Interview and UK “Speed Walk”

My friend Mikey Belcher is a fellow American-Canadian transplant to the UK. We went to grad school together, and now he has a fantastic Substack newsletter where he writes about art, architecture, and more. I was delighted to do an author interview with him recently.

He asked me thoughtful questions about my new poetry book, The Heart Decided to Move, we share our experiences of moving to the UK on ancestry visas, and the interview ends with a “speed walk” around some of my favorite places in the UK.

It was fun to be asked what building I’d most like to build out of Lego! Portmeirion, in Wales, of course (see below). Read the full interview here.

More Synesthesia Shenanigans

I’m taking part in a research study at the University of Sussex on synesthesia in families. My mom’s participating too. It’s looking at both synesthetes and their non-synesthetic first-degree relatives. They’re still looking for direct relatives of synesthetes to participate, so if this applies to you or someone you know, you can learn more below or click here to sign up. It’s a paid study that involves color matching and memory tests.

Now I have consistency tests confirming my synesthesia. It felt exciting to have evidence that this was real, that I wasn’t making it all up.

I’ve also signed up for a workshop with the documentary In My Mind’s Eye – Unlocking Synaesthesia. The co-hosts, who run the Let’s Talk Synaesthesia podcast, will be leading sessions on neurodivergent wellbeing, music, and art-making. It’s taking place on October 18 in London, and interested synesthetes can sign up on Eventbrite (space is limited).

This past weekend, I went to an art installation at the Barbican called Feel the Sound. I thought the “multi-sensory installations” sounded both interesting and synesthetic. The exhibit had a lot of cool concepts, such as instruments that use light or sense indirect touch, and AI-generated, light-up melodies that match participants’ descriptions of their experiences with music. There was a lot of AI use in this contemporary exhibit, and I’m not sure how I feel about the infusion of that bland AI-generated writing style in the art world.

As I expected, a lot of the exhibit mixed senses in interesting ways, and that stirred up my mixed senses. I suppose I should have expected that something called “Feel the Sound” would have a lot of what, to me, felt like “weird noises.” Some of them were red or green or shaped like triangles. It felt a bit chaotic in some of the rooms, and calmer in others where the sonic atmosphere was more closely controlled. The choir of trans voices in a room where listeners could rest on body pillows was a highlight, along with screens of visuals synced to music and platforms that vibrate along with sounds. Overall, the experience was a blend of hit and miss for me.

That’s how I’d probably describe my engagement with contemporary art in general, as well as my experiences with synesthesia. I recently tried closing my eyes by a busy highway and watching the colors and shapes that the car noises made in my mind’s eye. It was cool that I could do that… but I quickly lost interest in that little game. I’m the kind of curious person who smells all the roses in the rose garden. But some experiences, it turns out, can be both synesthetic and boring.

Onward, September!

August 26, 2024

Book Review: The Phoenix Keeper by S. A. MacLean

Plus a meal fit for a phoenix

I was given an ARC of The Phoenix Keeper, and here’s my honest review, plus some recipes the characters might like.

I loved this book. It was the perfect thing to read while recovering from illness, and the anxiety rep hit home. I was swept away into a world of magical zoo animals that, while fanciful, felt grounded in reality.

Aila Macbhairan is a phoenix keeper at the San Tamculo Zoo, living out the dream she’s had since she was 8 years old. She works with an endangered Silimalo phoenix in a zoo that hasn’t had an active breeding program for a while, but her fortunes reverse when a nearby facility has some of its phoenixes stolen. Aila must rush to get her facility ready and care for a new bird. What could go wrong? (So. Much.)

Aila has a staunch friend in fellow zookeeper Tanya, and an enemy (initially) in Luciana, who runs the zoo’s griffin show. She resents the show for its cheesy commercialism, and holds a grudge against Luciana based on incidents from their time at university together.

I found the queer rep in this story to be well done. Aila is bi, Tanya is trans, and there’s an adorable sapphic romance that weaves in around the animal shenanigans. Aila’s parents, far more extroverted than her, are also fun characters with their fusion-food pub.

But it’s Aila’s inner journey that got me. Her personality is familiar – bookish, skittish, and socially awkward. She’s as uncomfortable around most people as she is at home around the animals she works with. There’s a bit of mental health advice in the book, and I appreciated reading Aila’s experiences of being underestimated, belittled (especially when she tries to date dragon keeper Connor), and having a rough start with a therapist who didn’t get her, not because I want others to live through these things but because it’s nice to have fictional mirroring. Aila is especially terrified of public speaking. There’s a nice arc where she grows into a sense of purpose that helps her transcend her fears and live as if she’s enough (because of course she is).

One thing I appreciate about the rise in cozy fantasy is the opportunity to read about work in a fantastical world. All kinds of work, not just the world-saving kind. S. A. MacLean works in conservation, and it shows. Aila’s care for her phoenixes ends up carrying the day.

The magical animals feel real; they’re vivid characters, written with attention to the daily details of zoo life. At the same time, they’re wonderfully inventive. We get to read about creatures like peacock griffins, vanishing ducks, and pet carbuncles. (The book has a few illustrations, so we get to see some of them, too.) The world is modern, with phones and plastic souvenirs, and in many ways similar to our own. Yet thoughtfulness permeates the details, geography, and ecology.

The Phoenix Keeper’s writing flows smoothly and is well crafted. It takes effort to create something this engaging to read. I was a little sad to leave Aila’s world, and hope we get a sequel so I can spend more time there.

How can I thank the author? How about with some food fit for a phoenix (keeper)?

Phoenix Food: Awesome Slaw

Silimalo phoenixes eat a lot of veggies, and I think they’d enjoy this salad. I certainly do. I adapted the recipe from Kayti Peschke’s in Caboodle magazine.

Ingredients

1 head of cabbage

1 head of broccoli

2 carrots

a few dill pickles

For the dressing:

4 tbsp mayonnaise

4 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp mustard

sea salt and ground black pepper

Method

Chop the vegetables and mix them in a bowl.
Mix the dressing ingredients in another bowl.
Toss the dressing with the salad and enjoy!

Zookeeper Chow: Aubergine Gochujang Noodles

Aila has a hard time with spice, but I think even she’d enjoy these noodles that match her phoenixes’ fire just a little bit. Recipe from Mob 6: Tasty 6-Ingredient Meals.

Ingredients

1 aubergine (or eggplant), cut into 2cm chunks

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp peanut butter

2 packets of vegan instant ramen

1 spring onion, thinly sliced

Method

Preheat the oven to 180° C with fan.
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Toss the aubergines in a bowl with the oil, spread out on the baking tray and roast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and pour over the soy sauce, tossing well to coat. Return to the oven for 15 minutes until the aubergine is tender, sticky and caramelised. If it looks a little dry and overdone, add a splash of water to the tray to help you get it saucy and coated again.
In a small bowl, whisk together the gochujang, peanut butter and ramen seasoning packets with 3 tbsp of water. Set aside.
Set a large saucepan of water over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Cook the ramen for 3-4 minutes until tender. Drain in a colander, then add back to the pan and pour in the gochujang mixture. Stir well to combine.
Serve the noodles topped with the sticky soy saubergine and spring onion to garnish.

Rubra the Phoenix’s Hot Apple Toddy

So, I kind of made this up. I was sick, OK? I think this is what I put in there. Feel free to experiment with your own ingredients and portions!

Ingredients

1 part whisk(e)y (with U.S. and U.K. sources, the spelling in this post is all over the place)

3 parts apple juice

a little hot water

a dash of cinnamon

a dash of honey

a dash of lemon juice

1 lemon slice

1 clementine slice

another clementine slice + a raspberry for garnish

Method

Heat the liquids with the cinnamon and honey.
Add the fruit slices.
Add the garnishes to the rim and eat them after you finish drinking.

Happy eating, drinking, and reading! Don’t hesitate to check out this wonderful book!

June 3, 2024

Book Review: Centauri’s Shadow by Ross Garner

I was very excited when my colleague Ross Garner published his debut novel Centauri’s Shadow. It’s not every day that someone at work shows up with a thrilling space adventure, so I jumped at the chance to review it.

Centauri’s Shadow is a hard science fiction space opera with two separate storylines, told in two separate timelines that eventually converge.

Here’s what the blurb says:

“‘Eight years ago they sent a single ship to test our defences. Now they’re building an armada.’

Cole grew up in the shadow of grief. Kyoko grew up in the shadow of war. Two pilots, separated by time, set out on parallel journeys to Proxima Centauri. What they find could be the start of something new. What they bring with them could be the end of all we know.

In this sweeping science fiction debut from Ross Garner, readers will find an Earth that is transformed by fear of an imminent invasion; a space station in orbit that acts as a gateway to other worlds; a Martian colony with all of the threat and violence of the Old West; and a distant star where answers can be found.

What is ‘the signal’? A greeting, or a threat?”

Centauri’s Shadow lives up to its promises. There’s war, crime, threat, space accidents, space stations, aliens, and a dramatic twist.

The first chapter sets an exciting pace. Young Cole, one of the two protagonists, is in a spaceship with his family, waiting for his mother to pilot a spaceship around the sun. Then it all goes wrong, leaving Cole (literally and figuratively) scarred for life.

The story alternates between following Cole “before the attack” and a military pilot, Kyoko, “eight years after the attack.” A signal from an alien species has shaped Cole and Kyoko’s lives, in opposite directions. Originally believed to be a message, it resulted in an attack on earth from an alien species, which has shaped Kyoko’s career and leaves the future of all earthly life in doubt.

Readers watch as Cole grows up post-accident, through a troubled childhood, another space voyage, and a stay on a ragtag Mars colony full of crime and vice. Kyoko is a more straightforward character who has made, and is capable of making, hard choices. I enjoyed the story’s emotion and some of the characters’ moral greyness.

The space opera proceeds at a compelling, readable pace and has a surprising twist that makes it well worth reading. The ending satisfies, too. I wouldn’t call this an optimistic narrative, but it closes with a welcome sense of hope.

Give Centauri’s Shadow a try if you fancy a smoothly paced, exciting new science fiction read.

July 3, 2023

Book Review: Kind of Coping by Maureen “Marzi” Wilson

We all get anxious sometimes. But for some of us, anxiety can be intense or pervasive. I’ve been coming to terms lately with the role that anxiety plays in my life. It sounds great to be a relaxed person who doesn’t worry about much of anything…and these people exist, but I’m not one of them.

Nor is cartoonist Maureen “Marzi” Wilson. Wilson uses the handle of “Introvert Doodles” online and has published a number of graphic books about introversion. Her “introvert dream house” drawing made the rounds on social media a while ago, and I was ready to move in. Too bad it wasn’t real and affordable, right?

I picked up Kind of Coping: An Illustrated Look at Life with Anxiety in a local shop. The cover shows a cartoon Marzi’s head and arm poking out of a sleeping bag as she gives a sweaty thumbs-up and says, “Totally fine!”

She begins her book with a disclaimer: “FYI: This book will not ‘cure’ you.” Instead, it offers solace to the anxious by reassuring us that we’re not alone.

It’s full of simple, colorful cartoons as adorable as they are relatable. It’s an autobiographical book, with the little blonde, pink-cheeked Marzi doodle featuring throughout.

The book is broken thematically into parts, touching on themes such as social anxiety, responsibilities, and recognizing the need for support.

Marzi’s cartoons are often hilarious. One page features a series of 9 faces illustrating: “How anxious are you today?”, from a smiling “doing good” to 8’s “complete meltdown” to 9’s x-eyed, tongue-lolling-out “I’m literally dead.” Another shows Marzi deciding to make a to-do list and then getting buried in a pile of yellow paper.

Some sections are heavier on the text, like a page of panels labeled “What anxiety feels like.” I loved this descriptive bit: “Being inside of a kaleidoscope. The world is too bright, and everything keeps changing. As soon as I figure out the pattern, it shifts.”

I enjoyed the “Anxiety Bingo” card:

Some of these symptoms are familiar, such as “Awkward st-st-stuttering” and “Cannot adult today”. And I love how she marked the “Free” space, instead, as “Never feeling free”!

There were many times throughout this reading experience when I felt seen. Only being ready to speak up when the conversation has moved on? Travel anxiety? Comparing my weaknesses to other people’s strengths? Check! And there were some great pages that were less relatable to me but will ring a bell with others, such as worst-case-scenario thoughts about hiking up a mountain, only to run into a volcanic eruption at the top!

The book covers a lot of ground with humor and empathy, insisting on the need to be gentle with ourselves when things are tough inside our brains. I enjoyed the self-care ideas sprinkled throughout, such as the concept of making different to-do lists for good days, when we have the energy to work on our goals, and hard days, when we’re doing great if we make it out of bed.

Sometimes the world is too much. Sometimes our brains are too much. Kind of Coping is a soothing read for those times.

May 23, 2023

Book Review: Agony’s Lodestone by Laura Keating

Laura Keating, a fellow student from the University of New Brunswick’s Renaissance College program, is both a lovely person and a stellar writer. I read some of her work during our student days, and both of us have since been doing our best in the literary trenches. She’s carved out a niche and a name for herself in horror, and her debut novella, Agony’s Lodestone, came out in April. I couldn’t have been more excited to read it, and the book more than delivered on its premise.

To quote the publisher’s description:

Laura Keating‘s debut novella, AGONY’S LODESTONE, wraps you in its Weird, cold embrace, blending elements of Found Footage horror, fraught family drama, and a creepy-ass Canadian wilderness where time and space just won’t sit still.

-Tenebrous Press

Like me, Keating is from Atlantic Canada – more specifically, she hails from St. Andrews, New Brunswick. The region’s landscape plays a key feature in her haunting novella, with New Brunswick’s renowned “highest tides in the world” echoing through the caves in Cannon Park with a sound like cannon fire. The uncanny setting adds just the right amount of creepiness to the narrative. More on this later.

Agony’s Lodestone begins with a not entirely welcome sibling reunion. Survivalist loner Aggie has been toughing it on her own since the disappearance of her older sister, Joanne, a star swimmer. Her younger brother, Bailey, has capitalized on this disappearance with a flashy social media presence and a TV show seeking to solve its mystery. Their older brother, Alex, has devoted himself to raising a family. The three remaining siblings are all obviously grieving in their own ways, and their coping techniques rub against each other uncomfortably.

Bailey barges back into his siblings’ lives with a revelation: he’s found a videotape of Joanne. The VHS comes from security footage filmed at Cannon Park on the day Joanne left to walk their dog. The dog returned; the sister didn’t. On the tape, Joanne appears to flicker in and out of existence. And upon repeated viewing, the tape changes in terrifying ways.

The siblings, of course, must go to the park to see if they can uncover the truth behind their sister’s disappearance. Not one of them will emerge unscathed.

Keating crafts both character and setting with a deft touch. The siblings’ wounds feel fresh, and the New Brunswick wilderness is portrayed in unnerving detail, from the booming of unseen waves to the snapping of wood. The three characters find themselves trapped in the same uncanny reality that took their sister from them years ago, a place where time and space repeat themselves. They must use their wits to navigate this landscape that is never fully explained. The novella never loses sight of its emotional core, as much of the time, the siblings’ bruised hearts make their decisions for them. Creepy illustrations accentuate the story.

I’m looking forward to Laura Keating’s next book. For now, Agony’s Lodestone comes highly recommended!

January 27, 2023

Book review: A Consuming Fire by Laura E. Weymouth

“I don’t want to be an offering, she thought with a new and sharp urgency. I never have, nor a prayer, either. I will be a knife in the dark or nothing, no matter the cost.”
–A Consuming Fire, Laura E. Weymouth

What would you do if a god killed your sister? For Anya Astraea, the answer is clear: set out to murder him in retaliation.

I’ve enjoyed Laura E. Weymouth’s books since I read the first one, a unique portal fantasy called The Light Between Worlds. Weymouth writes historical fantasy for young adults. Her debut novel is a poignant take on Narnia and the devastating emotional consequences of growing up in another world, then being sent back to this one.

She has four books out now. Her latest is A Consuming Fire, and she was kind enough to share an ARC with me.

Reader, I loved it. There’s a consistent theme of anger across her last two novels. Women’s anger. Righteous anger. The anger of people who are overlooked, underestimated, and trampled underfoot by oppressive structures and figures who hold excess power. The anger of the small in a big world who stand up one day and declare, “Enough.”

In A Consuming Fire, a town called Weatherell is expected to periodically send a girl as a living sacrifice to appease a hostile god. These “Weatherell girls,” as they are called, must offer up what the mountain god demands, whether it’s a valued body part or a core personality trait. Protagonist Anya is intimately familiar with the lives of these sacrificial women: her mother was one of them, giving up her hands, and now her bold and adventurous twin sister, Ilva, is determined to make the journey up the mountain.

Ilva returns from the mountaintop drained of life force, and Anya watches her die. Another sacrifice is needed. But Ilva has made one last request of her sister: “Don’t let anyone else go.” And Anya, who’s long been incensed at the injustice of the system, is determined to follow that request. She sets off toward the mountain, not to offer herself to the god but to kill him.

Along the way, Anya falls in with a changeling thief and a group of others, including charming wanderers and a lovable dog, while playing a cat-and-mouse game with religious officials called the Elect who want to use her for their own ends. Everyone is hiding secrets of their own that, when revealed, will expand Anya’s understanding of her world. Ilva’s ghost remains a frequent visitor, urging her on and reminding her of her mission’s stakes. If she fails, countless girls will suffer; if she succeeds, she might spare others from suffering as her mother and sister did ever again.

A Consuming Fire carries a foreboding undertone, with deft touches such as bone charms made from dead Weatherell girls adding to the atmosphere and sense that this world is askew. Psychological insight blends with lyrical phrasing and keenly felt emotion throughout.

There are religious themes and features in this book that won’t be for everyone. After all, it is not set in a fantasy world but in an altered variant of the historical UK. But if you enjoy or don’t mind those aspects, you’ll find a lot to appreciate in the novel when it comes to the nature of power and agency.

Come join Anya on her vengeful climb up the mountain and witness how powerful a woman wronged can become!

May 3, 2022

Writing for a Day Job While Writing for Myself

I used to think I had limited energy for writing, and partly for this reason, I avoided day jobs that directly involved writing. I taught writing, edited, and on the side, I wrote and published. Then I started a blog for an editing job that focused on guiding authors through the writing process, and I enjoyed it. It was one of the most fun things I’d ever done at work.

This year, I accepted a job that combines writing and editing. A lot of the work is editing heavy, but I’m also writing content for scripts, blog posts, news roundups, and other forms of online learning about workplace performance.

So, what’s it like writing for a day job while continuing to work on personal writing projects on my own time? (Yes, I hope many of these will go on to get published, but right now they are self-motivated rather than client focused.) So far, it doesn’t match my prior anxieties at all.

Part of this is compartmentalization. I write about work stuff at work, in formats that suit the content we are producing and what clients need. I write “my stuff” outside of work, and give myself free reign to delve into personal obsessions, neuroses, and experiments. What I create on my own time bears little resemblance to what I write on the clock, so it’s easy to differentiate and get into the appropriate mode for each project.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it’s nice to be creative at work. Especially since writing is only part of the job and deadlines are set at a reasonable pace (it might be different if I were constantly churning out content), I catch myself getting flashes of energy from the workplace writing I do. My brain gets to stretch and think. I’ve tried new formats and engaged with new ideas. I get to make things, not just evaluate and fix them up.

I also enjoy having colleagues who share my creative interests. Jonathan Hancock, one of the other in-house writers, has published several books about memory. Last month, our coworker Alice Gledhill interviewed both of us about what it’s like to be a published author. The questions were fun to answer, and you can read the interview here.

Outside of the structure of work, I continue to write my monthly blog posts (and the years of doing these have been good preparation for the type of writing I’m doing at my job), to finish the occasional short piece (like this book review), and to make progress on my current novel manuscript at a faster rate than I did before this job. My short story collection Dream Signs had a lovely review, and my YA novel is progressing toward the ARC stage.

In short, it feels very different to work on my own projects and on work projects, but the two of them use overlapping skills. In a way, each of them is practice for the other. Maintaining boundaries between the two is also important, and you might find the same for yourself if you write for a day job and in your off hours. I tap into different ways of thinking and focus on the different goals and aims of the type of writing I’m doing at the moment.

If you love writing creatively but are afraid of using up your creative energy at a day job, I’d encourage you to try out writing work if you’re curious about exploring it. Your wordsmithing abilities and creative energy may not be as finite as you thought!

April 1, 2022

Book Review: The Gold Persimmon by Lindsay Merbaum

Looking for some queer, feminist horror? The Gold Persimmon is a new novel full of lush, surreal hotels, precise language, and chilling threats that haunt the characters gradually.

Two stories cross paths in this book. The first, a third-person framing narrative that starts and ends the book, focuses on a young woman named Clytemnestra who holds a dead-end job at a luxury hotel called The Gold Persimmon. It’s a rule-bound environment that ensures privacy and discretion. Clients go there to grieve, and one has recently committed a dramatic suicide. While the troubled parents she lives with disapprove of her job, Cly views the hotel as a refuge, “a precisely ordered world of musts and musn’ts.”

This order is threatened when Cly begins an affair with an older client named Edith. Revelations pile up to reveal that there’s more to Edith’s story than what’s apparent on the surface.

Once things between Cly and Edith come to a head, the first story gives way to the second, featuring a nonbinary first-person narrator named Jaime. Their life circumstances aren’t too different from Cly’s: they’re a young, aspiring writer interviewing for a job at a sex hotel when a dangerous fog envelops the city.

With the outside world under threat, Jaime is trapped inside the hotel with six other people, not all of whom are trustworthy. Gender, sexuality, and power intertwine as the characters form alliances, keep secrets and weave in and out of rooms, trying to survive. Fans of closed-environment horror will appreciate the setting, with its claustrophobia and absurdity (characters hide out in dryers and stumble into dildo-themed hotel rooms), and the tense narrative pace.

The twin narratives are equally surreal, meeting reality at a dark remove that’s just a little off-kilter. The book’s blurb states that they are set in parallel realities, but the narrative does not clearly define how they intersect. Throughout both, dreams intrude on waking life. Physical attacks occur and it isn’t initially clear what or who is attacking. At one point, Jaime brainstorms a story idea which resembles the setting of Cly’s story, and Cly’s own narrative culminates in a haunting twist.

Merbaum’s language is masterful. Not a word seems out of place. The haunting and beautiful descriptions resonate well after the book ends. Pick up The Gold Persimmon if you’re in the mood for something uncanny and thoughtful.

June 9, 2021

“Loveless” for Pride Month: A Book Recommendation

Happy Pride Month! This June, I’d like to acknowledge and celebrate a book written by one of my favorite YA authors, Alice Oseman. Loveless is the story of Georgia, a relatable college student who is obsessed with the idea of romance and an avid fan of fictional relationships, yet she has never had a crush. She begins school seeking her own love story, only to discover that she may be aromantic and asexual, and that much love is present in her life in unexpected forms. It’s the first aro/ace coming out story I’ve read, and one of the first published. It’s also the well-deserved winner of the YA Book Prize.

I was anticipating this book before it came out (pun intended as it’s a coming out story. I know, I’m so funny. :P). I don’t identify as ace or aro. However, learning about asexuality was important for me as a way of recognizing and acknowledging instances where my culture expected attraction or interest and there was simply nothing there. Who and what we desire and say “yes” to is important knowledge about ourselves. The knowledge of our “nos” is equally important.

Last year for pride month, I wrote and shared with the Attic Owl Reading Series a poem about recognizing our “nos” in anticipation of Loveless’s publication. I’m delighted to say that the book surpassed my expectations. It’s a celebration of different forms of relationships, with characters that feel alive. It’s got great jokes, a Shakespeare society, and pool noodle fights. Check it out if you have the chance!

Thank you, Alice Oseman, for sharing this honest and affecting story with the world.