So SO SO many goodies–signed books and workshops and mugs and stickers and t-shirts–but here’s what I contributed:
“This C.S.E. Cooney Starter Pack is a treasure! Includes Includes SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER, SAINT DEATH’S HERALD, BONE SWANS, THE TWICE DROWNED SAINT, and DARK BREAKERS. Signed and Personalized with hand-painted jewelry.”
(By the way, the hand-painted earrings are by my sister-in-law Martha Hernandez Polanco of Martha’s Art Series, and the necklace was a long-ago gift from a friend, which I treasure, and which I now pass on to some other fairy-tale-minded reader.)
Going on Tour with Absolute Genius CAITLYN PAXSON! Plus other stuff!
February is over, and with it all emergencies, surgeries, and recoveries. I am almost, in fact, full recovered. Which is good. Because a lot of stuff is coming up!
For FAWM—February Album Writing Month—I wrote lyrics to 9 songs (9 of the 14, so I didn’t “win” FAWM), and two of them garnered musical collaborations! But I’m into it! I want to do it again next year, possibly with my brothers, if they’ll agree!
I also passed 50K on my novel wip, Saint Death’s Doorway. Trying to amp up the writing in March and get the greater part of the REST of it done.
Meanwhile, things are happening! This week, even. And beyond! BEHOLD!
Wednesday, March 11—Fantastic Fiction at KGB
A night of Fantastic Fiction with guest writers Kristina Ten and yours truly, C. S. E. Cooney
Saturday, March 21st—Negocios Infernales at Shore Gamers!
TTRPG game: 1-5 PM Infernal Salon: 6-7:30 PM Play the new TTRPG Negocios Infernales, run by game designers Carlos Hernandez and C. S. E. Cooney, at Shore Gamers in Red Bank, New Jersey! This will be followed by an Infernal Salon, open to all!
What is Negocios Infernales?
A DM-less, diceless, collaborative ROLEPLAYING GAME: “the Spanish Inquisition INTERRUPTED by aliens!” Play a desperate wizard who’s made a devil’s bargain: but the “devils” are ALIENS just trying to save humanity! Instead of dice, use weird, spooky cards to determine your fate!
What is an Infernal Salon?
A fun, low-stakes creativity workshop. You’ll draw one or more cards from the very spooky, PG-13 deck from the TTRPG Negocios Infernales. Then, we set a timer for 25 minutes, and everyone shares what they’ve made! Great for writers, DMs, musicians, and creatives of every stripe.
Monday, March 23—The Power of Poetic Imagination in Our Time
( RESCHEDULED from snowpacalypse)
A panel of poets at Saint John’s University: with Connecticut Poet Laureate Antoinette Brim-Bell, Rhysling Award-nominated poet Ali Trotta, and yours truly, C. S. E. Cooney.
APRIL 7 – APRIL 20th
CAITLYN PAXSON’S BOOK LAUNCH TOUR FOR A WIDOW’S CHARM!
Caitlyn starts her tour in Charlottetown, P. E. I. on March 31st at 7 PM, with Haviland Book Club at Bookmark P. E. I. She writes:
But then I have the UNUTTERABLE pleasure of joining her on the rest of her Canadian and U. S. book launch tour! I get to be her conversation partner and BASK IN HER GLORY!
Caitlyn writes:
I am so excited to chat with Claire at all the Ontario and US tour stops – besides talking about A Widow’s Charm, you can expect us to cover topics such as writer friendships and how they sustain us, creating loveable necromancers, and many other topics!
About A Widow’s Charm
In this witty fantasy romance, a widow attempts to resurrect her dead husband by blackmailing her rakish necromancer neighbor—only to find herself falling for him instead.
“Witty, whimsical, and deeply kind, A Widow’s Charm is beyond charming—it’s wholly enchanting.”
—Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of The Everlasting
Lady Hildegarde Croft is accustomed to changes in position. After all, she rose from maidservant to lady of the manor when she married Lord Thorgoode Croft. But when he dies unexpectedly, the plans that would have protected her and the people of Croftholde die along with him. What’s a widow to do?
Potential salvation arrives in the form of Lord Elmwood, who is fleeing the consequences of using his forbidden Charm to raise the dead. Now he’s injured, destitute, and hiding out at the neighboring estate.
For Hilde, blackmailing Lord Elmwood to resurrect Thorgoode seems like the perfect solution. For Elmwood, beautiful Lady Croft seems like the ideal distraction from his troubles. The problem is, all she wants from him is the horrifying power he knows he can never use again.
My blurb for A Widow’s Charm?
“Caitlyn Paxson’s A Widow’s Charm is hair-raising, dead-raising, and utterly arousing. Sexy, absurd, cozy, lovable, hold-on-to-your-pants thrilling. The whole thing charmed the hell out of me. What even is this book? It’s everything I want to read!”
—C. S. E. Cooney, author of World Fantasy Award-winning Saint Death’s Daughter
About Caitlyn Paxson
Caitlyn Paxson has a degree in writing and cultural history and has worked as the artistic director of storytelling performances, a harpist, a book reviewer, a nineteenth century jack-of-all-trades, a shepherdess, and a fake Victorian spirit medium. She lives on Prince Edward Island with her husband and three orange cats. A Widow’s Charm is her first book.
Dear friends, in little over an hour, at 2:30 EST, as the blizzard conditions set in, Carlos and I will be hosting a virtual reading on my twitch channel–twitch.tv/csecooney!
Our Eldritch Horror line-up is amazing. Read more about our readers here!
Mike Allen writes spooky things — a Publishers Weekly reviewer once called his stories “nightmare fuel.” Two of his collections of horror tales, Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, were nominees for the Shirley Jackson Award. To Mike’s delight, his newest novel, Appalachian horror yarn Trail of Shadows (Broken Eye Books, 2025), has been named a finalist for the 2026 Webster Award — founded to honor the memory of his dear departed friend Bud Webster. Mike’s other novels include the post-apocalyptic swarming-undead sidearms-and-sorcery adventure The Black Fire Concerto. Other stories and poems of his have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Best Horror of the Year, Interzone, Nebula Awards Showcase, Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, and more. With his wife Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, home to numerous award-winning and award-nominated sci-fi and fantasy volumes that defy categories and expectations. As an editor and publisher, Mike has twice been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Follow him on Instagram @mythicdelirium and Bluesky @mythicdelirium.bsky.social.
Christa Carmen is the Bram Stoker Award-winning and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of The Daughters of Block Island, Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, “Through the Looking Glass and Straight Into Hell,” & the forthcoming Beneath the Poet’s House. Find her at http://www.christacarmen.com.
Sarah Hans is an award-winning writer whose stories have appeared in more than 50 publications, including Apex Magazine and Pseudopod. A former special education teacher, she has written numerous books, primarily in the horror and dark fantasy romance genres. You can read along chapter-by-chapter as she writes her newest book at patreon.com/sarahhans. She lives in Ohio with her husband, a varying number of teenagers, more pets than she can afford, and enough craft supplies to keep her busy for the next 200 years.
Nicholas Kaufmann is the Bram Stoker Award-, Shirley Jackson Award-, Thriller Award-, and Dragon Award-nominated author of numerous works of horror and suspense, including the bestsellers 100 FATHOMS BELOW (co-written with Steven L. Kent) and THE HUNGRY EARTH. His latest is the collection MONUMENTS IN DARKNESS, which celebrates his 25th anniversary as a published author. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
CASSANDRA KHAW is the USA Today bestselling and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Library at Hellebore, Nothing But Blackened Teeth, The Salt Grows Heavy, Breakable Things, and coauthor of The Dead Take the A Train with Richard Kadrey. They are an award-winning game writer.
Haralambi Markov is a Bulgarian fiction writer and editor with a background in content creation. In 2014, they became the first ever Bulgarian accepted to attend the Clarion Writers’ Workshop. Their short story “The Language of Knives” was long-listed for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, and their essay “My Father, My Private Monster” made it onto the Bram Stoker Award long list for non-fiction in 2025. Their work has appeared in Reactor, Uncanny Magazine, Evil in Technicolor, Weird Fiction Review, Stories for Chip, Eurasian Monsters, and Fractured Reveries. They were part of the team of BonFIYAH 2021. Mythic Delirium Books will release their debut collection of short fiction, The Language of Knives: Stories, in July 2026. Follow them on Instagram at @somethinghaunted.
S.P. Miskowski’s stories appear in many anthologies. She’s received two NEA fellowships, multiple award nominations, and This Is Horror Novel of the Year 2017. Recent works: If You Knew Me (Thomas & Mercer), Daughters of Catastrophe (Grimscribe Press), and The Skillute Cycle (Broken Eye Books).
Jeffrey Thomas’s books include Punktown, Deadstock, Blue War, The American, and The Idol. He has been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award and John W. Campbell Award, and his stories have been reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII (editor, Karl Edward Wagner), The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #14 (editors, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling), and Year’s Best Weird Fiction #1 (editors, Laird Barron and Michael Kelly). Thomas lives in Massachusetts
A Horror Reading with “The Sinister Six” authors from Ruadán Books’ anthology Sinister Societies: Six Novellas of Secrets and Horrors
Who is?
Cindy O’Quinn is an Appalachian writer. She grew up in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia. She writes fiction, nonfiction, and speculative poetry, which all lean heavily into the horror genre. She is the author of Dark Cloud on Naked Creek. It was Cindy’s fifth Bram Stoker Award nomination that garnered her the prestigious award. Her poetry has been nominated for the Elgin, Rhysling, and Dwarf Star awards.
Errick Nunnally was born and raised in Boston,Massachusetts, he served one tour in the Marine Corps before deciding art school would be a safer—and more natural—pursuit. He is permanently distracted by art, comics, science fiction, history, and horror. Trained as a graphic designer, he has earned a black belt in KravMaga/Muay Thai kickboxing after dark, and first prize in one hamburger contest. Errick’s writing includes: the novels Blood for the Sun, All the Dead Men, and Lightning Wears a Red Cape; a comic strip collection, Lost in Transition; and a short novel The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile from upstart publisher Clash Books. The following are some magazines and anthologies that he has appeared in: Galaxy’s Edge; Fiyah Literary Magazine; Lamplight; and Nightlight, a Black Horror Podcast. Eventually, Errick came to his senses and moved to Rhode Island with his two lovely children and one beautiful wife. Visit erricknunnally.us to see more of his work.
Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears red lipstick, and poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of numerous works including Darling, the Stabby Award-winning Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love, Pretty Little Dead Girls, Detritus in Love, and Nameless. She is a three-time Bram Stoker Award winner for Little Dead Red, Love is a Crematorium, and “Fracture.” Mercedes lives and works in Las Vegas. You can find her at mercedesmyardley.com.
Michael Burke is the co-founder of the Eisner-award-winning comic and collectible store Comicazi in Somerville, MA. When not sorting the comic stacks at work, Michael can be found at home, releasing the hobgoblins of his mind into story form. He has had several short stories published both online and in print, including The Horror Zine, Monster Fight at the O.K. Corrall, and the ‘80s-themed anthology, Totally Tubular Terrors. He also has a weird western novella, Last Sunset of a Dying Age, in Crystal Lake’s Dark Tide series and a small sword and sorcery collection, Fragments of a Greater Darkness, from Tule Fog Press. Michael is a member of the New England Horror Writers’ Association and lives outside of Boston, MA with a patient wife in a house with more books than he can possibly read, which doesn’t stop him from acquiring more. He continues writing every chance he gets.
Tom Deady‘s first novel, Haven, won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. He has since published several novels, novellas, a short story collection, and the first book in his middle grade horror series. Most recently, he released The Rack II, a follow-up to the popular anthology The Rack, themed around celebrating the bygone days of mass market horror paperbacks. He has a master’s degree in English and Creative Writing and is a member of both the Horror Writers Association and the New England Horror Writers Association. You can find out more about Tom and his work at www.tomdeady.com.
Sarah Read is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, Out of Water, Root Rot & Other Grim Tales, and The Atropine Tree. She lives in northern Wisconsin where she works as a public librarian, knits, and collects stationery and pretty rocks. Visit her at authorsarahread.com.
A Horror Reading with many of my Dark-Arts Friends! With bonus COVER REVEAL of Haralambi Markov’s upcoming short story collection The Language of Knives
Who is?
I’ll post their full bios later as we get closer to the event, but here are the stars:
St. John’s University’s second Storytelling event: The Power of Poetic Imagination in Our Time, a discussion moderated by me featuring poets Ali Trotta, C. S. E. Cooney, and Antoinette Brim-Bell
Yes. I think I just wrote a fan song for my own fiction. That’s okay. It makes me happy. Shout out to Saint Death’s Daughter, Saint Death’s Herald, and my current WIP–the last of the trilogy–Saint Death’s Doorway.
Necromancy Is
Hey hey hey hey Don’t look at it that way All that gray gray gray All that death and decay
It’s not like you might think it is (Okay, I mean, I guess it is) But also it’s so beautiful To raise an undead friend
Hey hey hey hey Let me tell you ’bout my day First I have to say say say Hello to all the graves
I kiss the air about their tombs I walk into their stony rooms And tell them they’re so beautiful Oh, all my undead friends
Hey hey hey hey Why keep them all at bay? That’s not my way way way And I think we do okay
Necromancy’s not a sport It’s kind of like a secret art And damn, it’s really beautiful To meet new undead friends
BRIDGE
I’ve raised a queen from just her toe I’ve raised a wolf cub too I’ve raised a tiger from a rug And now I’m raising you
Your face is smiling, bones so green I think we’ll get along I’ll sing, you’ll play your moldy harp We’ll dance the dance macabre
Hey hey hey hey It’s the end of our fun day Now I’m gonna lay lay lay You in your resting place
Our time together, sweet and rare Well nothing else quite can compare We were so very beautiful My darling undead friend
Speakeasy Magick Secret delight Sneak in the back room It’s only at night
And the boys pick your pockets But the girls are in charge There’s a man at the piano His heart like a forge
There’s a devil at the table And he’s flirting in French There’s a geezer at the microphone Whose jokes make you cringe
And I’m not supposed to say it I’m not supposed to tell About the coins, the cards, the rubber bands Their neck tattoos, their clever hands Their secret rings and all those things That make us clap until we bleed That make us laugh because we need A world that still has magic
Speakeasy Magick Prosecco’s on me We lean in and laugh the same My hand on his knee
And the waiter’s adorable Their hair up in knots They haven’t slept for seven nights They’re ready to plotz
And this night is for wonders For tricks quick as light A handkerchief becomes a dove A dozen doves take flight
And I’m not supposed to say it I’m not supposed to tell About the coins, the cards, the rubber bands Their neck tattoos, their clever hands Their secret rings and all those things That make us clap until we bleed That make us laugh because we need A world that still has magic
Yesterday, we made our characters for a short-shot DND game my sister-in-law is DMing for us over the next few weeks. I’d never played a Druid, so I chose that class–Circle of Spores, baby! BECAUSE MUSHROOMS! (And decay!) (Thus, I named my character “Golden Chanterelle.” Possibly “Chant” for short. Or “Goldie.”)
And I love Changelings, so that’s the race I chose. I like shapeshifting, not only into animals but other things as well.
Background is “Feylost”–also a first for me. I love a girl who falls through a mushroom circle. And it’s sort of backwards for Changelings, isn’t it? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
So anyway, I figured I’d write today’s FAWMling song à la D&D, in the manner of my people. (My people being specifically… Dr. Mary Crowell, of “I Have Missed You at My Table” and “I Put My Low Stat.”)
I think I’ll spend the first half of the month writing lyrics, and then the second half of the month working up melodies or collaborating for them.
Golden Chanterelle
Whiff of nectar, golden-sweet Smell of honey, dripping mead Draw too near, you might find more Breathing in her cloud of spore
She is Golden Chanterelle Coat of moss and fairy bells Fell asleep and fell through worlds Now she walks, a wild girl
Under hemlock, under fir You might find a trace of her Look again, she’ll disappear Misty-stepping far from here
She is Golden Chanterelle Coat of moss and fairy bells Fell asleep and fell through worlds Now she walks, a wild girl
Giant boar and wild bear Tiger, spider, goat, or hare Chanterelle is girl and beast Isn’t anybody’s feast
She is Golden Chanterelle Coat of moss and fairy bells Fell asleep and fell through worlds Now she walks, a wild girl
BRIDGE
What can she protect? What can she preserve? Whom is she looking for? Whom will she serve?
Hungry to connect Afraid to be seen Shy in the shadows She hides in the green
She is Golden Chanterelle Coat of moss and fairy bells Fell asleep and fell through worlds Now she walks, a wild girl
Mary Crowell reminded Tina and me that it’s FAWM this month. I’ve never tried it before, so I signed up. I only sort of have a melody off that edge of my ears, but I like the lyric.
One of, hopefully, fourteen.
Imbolc, the Ice Moon
Across the Atlantic There’s something between us It isn’t the ocean
It rises mephitic Obnoxious, obscuring An impasse
You turn a cold shoulder At Imbolc, the Ice Moon The coastline is freezing
I’m dressed for the weather We’re no more than strangers It’s winter
Withdrawal as vengeance No chance for forgiveness It’s over, I see now
I acted too slowly Neglected your soreness It festered
It’s Imbolc, the Ice Moon The walls thick between us The wind whistles, lonely
As long as you’re warm now And safe in your home now It’s all right
As long as you’re warm now Your life flush and full now It’s all right
As long as you’re warm now With loves like I loved you It’s all right
I guess that was friendship And this is adulthood And it’s…
AAAUGHHH!!! At last I get to share this!!! THE FRENCH TRANSLATION of Desdemona and the Deep, with cover art by the glorious Anouck Faure is NIGH! (Instagram: @anoukfaure)
Éditions Argyll is bringing it out this April, along with The Breaker Queen this October! (Instagram: @argylleditions)
I am ECSTATIC! I love Anouck’s work so much! I’ve already framed her Desdemona art, AND made a decal for our window, and will do the same with her Breaker Queen art, which I cannot wait to show you!
Anouck tells me the translation is by Anne-Sylvie Homassel, who is amazing, with a high sensitivity to prose, and I cannot wait to experience it! My esteem for human translators cannot be measured in jewels, gold, or even words.
First letter of the New Year. (Mirrored from my Substack Newsletter.)
The Burger Meme Personality Test
Dear Readers,
I will begin by upholding the shining beacon of mi esposo, Carlos Hernandez—YEA EVEN HE OF SAL AND GABI FAME! HE OF MARVEL AND DISNEY AND THE ASSIMILATED CUBAN’S GUIDE TO QUANTUM SANTERIA—who currently has a bonkers, hilarious game currently entered into the “Interactive Fiction Short Games Showcase 2025.”
It’s called “The Burger Meme Personality Test.” It’s a satire.
So far my favorite responses to his game are “I think it was designed by three Harvard Lampoon students in a trenchcoat.” And “LMAO what did I just play?”
You can play—AND RATE!—this game—AND OTHERS—at the links above! Go! Play! Have fun!
Within, we strive to remain engaged, stay informed, do our work, help where we can.
I’m still getting back into work habits that hosting for almost a month of (wonderful) holiday house guests (I include my birthday as the first holiday) had interrupted.
I work on my novel. I read books to blurb, and also for pleasure (when I can!). I narrate audiobooks when the work comes my way. I love it all.
I had been taking voice lessons the past two years with Kiara Duran of Sing by Feel. She’s given me so many incredible tools to enrich this curious instrument of mine! So many joyful noises we make. So much breathing into the strange sea creature of our secret selves. I’m on pause for the moment, but I love taking all I was taught and trying to apply it, not just to singing, but being in the world.
But also to singing. Trying to sing old songs in new ways.
What does the year look like from the vantage of January?
Of note: I am officiating two weddings, one in May, one in December. (It’s like a TROPE!)
I have a book due in August—the third of the Saint Death trilogy. The completion of eighteen (?!) years’ work.
Amal El-Mohtar, C. S. E. Cooney, and Caitlyn Paxson: an iteration of the Banjo Apocalypse Crinoline Troubadours at Ottawa’s The Mercury Lounge in 2014
The books? Amal’s collection Seasons of Glass and Ironfrom Tor, and Caitlyn’s A Widow’s Charm. I’m gonna hop over to Canada and be Caitlyn’s conversation partner for some of her DEBUT TOUR!
I think Amal will be traveling abroad at the time, and her US tour is mostly West Coast this year, but we live in hope of crossing paths at some point. FaceTime must sustain us!
Or… you COULD bat your eyes at your local game store and ask THEM to carry it?
Would you? Would you, please?
Carlos and I are hoping to make a lot of mini-road trips this year on our Infernal Tour, traveling to places where we have gamer friends who have even MORE gamer friends, and ALSO hopefully a good relationship with their local game stores.
We’d love to RUN Negocios Infernales for them (for YOU? Potentially?) as their (YOUR?) sort of Living Rulebook
In Negocios Infernales, there’s no GM, as the game is collaborative, but we can guide people through their initial play. And, hopefully, get local game stores excited to carry it and talk about it!
I’m taking a break from cons this year—with the exception of the GenCon Writers Symposium. We’ll be doing writing SFF panels by day, running Negocios Infernales by night.
Therefore, the Midwest portion of our Infernal Tour will probably both precede and follow GenCon. It’ll probably consist of something in that general Indiana area, as well as the Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul areas, where more community (and game stores!) abound!
Plans are still fluid. If you’re in those areas, and love to game, let’s talk!
Falling in Love with Reading, Again and Again
Currently reading: an arc of Rym Kechacha’s The Apple and the Pearl, out at the beginning of next month from Penguin Random House.
I am so moved by it! The time signature of it—an interwoven character-and-mood pace that builds the plot out of many small tensions and drives!
And the weird, interstitial magic of a road-world, a train-track-world, that picaresque place between the Earth we know and all the realms we don’t.
And the Crow! And the ghosts! And the hungry Fae! The smell of peaches…
And the deep-dive into each character so you think THEY’RE the protagonist—and they are! It’s a TRUE ensemble piece!
And the whole phantasmagorical MIASMA of its ineffable ambience.
This book is INFUSED. Like HBO’s Carnival meets The Night Circus meets Something Wicked This Way Comes, but like none of those. Like nothing else!
Cover reveal is TBA! (Publisher Mike Allen cheated and showed me early though. I know. I’m SO LUCKY.) I do have my blurb I wrote for it, and that is this:
“Haunted and horny, melancholy and mysterious, Haralambi Markov’s The Language of Knives and Other Bodily Ruins is occasionally like being flayed on the inside of your eyelids, but in a good way. So weird. So queer. So nauseating. And so, so beautiful.”
C.S.E. Cooney 