April: Month of the Herald

(Friends, sorry if you subscribe to both my blog AND my newsletter. You’ll get some mirrored content, though not all! This is one of the duplicates!)

I want to write about a lot of things, so I’ll do a little ToC at the beginning here to keep my thoughts organized (and so you can skip to whatever might be of most interest).

1. Upcoming FICTION: IMPOSSIBLE episode with James Ryan, co-hosted with Carlos Hernandez
2. Zig Zag Claybourne’s forthcoming Amnandi Sails, sequel to Breath, Warmth & Dream.
3. Our final actual play—live!—of Hearthglow, a D&D campaign DMed by Dr. Greg Wilson
4. My month of recording six dang audiobooks! AAUGH!
5. Saint Death’s Herald—launch at Kew and Willow in Queens! A signing in Westerly, RI! Followed by… drumroll… new to this newsletter… a VIRTUAL LAUNCH!
6. A few Herald-related awesomenesses: an essay, a cocktail, some blurbs… ya know
7. In May: In conversation with Caitlin Rozakis of Dreadful in celebration of her forthcoming book The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association

Okay. That’s good. Seven is good. I’ve been busy. 

FICTION: IMPOSSIBLE with James Ryan

Monday April 21st! 7 PM EASTERN, on twitch.tv/csecooney

This will be is our second-ever episode of Fiction: Impossible: a show on Twitch wherein Carlos and I talk about what games we’re playing, what we’re reading, and also have a conversation with an author—usually one who’s just had their book out this year, or will have one shortly forthcoming.

This coming episode, we’ll have guest James Ryan on to talk about his book Statues to Silence, a mystery thriller with fantastical elements. 

I bought my copy a few weeks ago, and will be reading it the MOMENT I’m done with my next (and last, for a few weeks anyway) prep script for the slew of audiobooks I’ve been narrating this month! 

Apparently, James’s book is chock full of monsters and art history. What’s not to like? Yay! 

Zig Zag Claybourn’s Amnandi Sails!

The back cover copy of Zigs’ forthcoming Amnandi Sails, sequel to Breath, Warmth & Dream reads as follows: 

The end of one journey always begins another. As 17-year-old Amnandi Khumalo nears the completion of her oceangoing apprenticeship under the majestic Captain Maab, everything once ordinary spirals into nightmare. The raging madness of a false king pushes a ragtag crew ever outward, through seafolk and shapeshifting ravens…to the very notion of gods themselves.

A ship. A crew. A whisper. A witch.

I’m so excited for this! This is book two of the Khumalo trilogy, and Zig Zag was writing it at the same time I was writing my own sequel in a trilogy, Saint Death’s Herald. We were solidarity buddies, and would text each other “words I like today” for the last year and a half. 

If you don’t know already, I dedicated Saint Death’s Herald to Zig Zag Claybourne—for this reason, and for so many others! And now—soon—he’ll be crowdfunding to put this beauty out into the world, from his exquisite and thoughtful press, Obsidian Sky.

Sign up to be notified here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidiansky/amnandi-sails

And if you haven’t read it already, pick up Zig Zag’s gorgeous Breath, Warmth & Dream(that’s the link where you can buy it directly from the author), 

Want to know more about it? Check out the Kickstarter video for Book 1. But here are just a few of the effusive, wonder-struck, awe-filled responses about this book:

Author Cerece Rennie Murphy calls it: “So delicate and expertly held and told.” 

Author Meg Elison says, “Claybourne has turned out a jewel-toned adventure, full of mischief, mirth, and murder. 

And author Jeffrey Ford writes: “With the same unique vision, narrative energy, and humor Zig Zag Claybourne brought to the genre bending Afrofuturist space operas The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan and Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe, in his new fantasy, Breath, Warmth, and Dream, he spins a tale of magic and witchcraft set in a wholly original imaginary realm. Different, deep, and fun.”

Hearthglow: Live… The Final Episode

Well, our year of doing a D&D actual play is drawing to a close. The final episode of Hearthglow, based on the campaign setting The Forbidden Library, by Dr. Greg Wilson, (also our DM) will be a live performance at Sacred Heart University! 

Sacred Heart boasts as one of its student body our own Adam Petrosino, poet and playwright (I mean, IRL too, although he also plays a bard in our game), who is ROCKING his higher education experience with a double major in English and Theatre Arts. HE WILL NEVER REGRET IT. I speak as One Who Knows. 

For more about Hearthglow, and the podcast episodes thus far, go here: https://www.arvaneleron.com/hearthglow/

Where? The Schine Auditorium at Sacred Heart University

When? Friday, April 11th, 2025

What time? 4 p.m. Eastern

A Six-Audiobook Month

…is the reason I haven’t been posting much. And why I’m so slow at reading for blurbs and reviews… because I’m reading ALL THE PREP SCRIPTS! Oh, and I get to be in a MUSICAL on May 5th… but maybe I’ll save that news for a different newsletter. 

Thus far this month I’ve narrated: 

Dying to Read, by Lynn Cahoon for Tantor Audio

My own novel Saint Death’s Herald, for Recorded Books

The Spirit Moves by Carol J. Perry for Tantor Audio

The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen for Ruadán Books! (Well, I’m in the middle of that one, actually. Today was Day 2 of 4!)

Next week, I’m narrating  A Formal Fatality by Lynn Cahoon for Bookmark Audio

And then in a couple of weeks (yay BREAK!) (my voice says THANK YOU!) I’ll be narrating A Side Dish of Death, by T. C. LoTempio for Tantor Audio!

I dressed up every day to narrate Saint Death’s Herald. I’m doing the same thing for Mike’s book, Black Fire Concerto, since I have a LONG friendship with Mike, and with this book! It’s full dark fantasy body horror, and an EXCELLENT adventure to boot, with awesome FOX PEOPLE called VULPINES, and a lot of really icky monsters. I mean. Like. FLESHY. 

I had so much fun prepping Mike’s script, I leapt up and cosplayed with it in the middle of prepping it. No, it was NOT procrastination. I was still READING it. I just found myself reading it while swathed in a black cloak with a tea light burning in a glass skull vase, that’s all. Here’s me, with Mike’s book: 

SAINT DEATH’S HERALD Book Launch Week!!! AAUGGHHH!!! 

I’ve already posted about this! But I’ll say it again here: 

Thursday, April 24th, 7 PM at Kew and Willow, in Kew Gardens, NY

Friday, April 25th, 6:30 PM at Martin House Books in Westerly, RI

Sunday, April 27th, a VIRTUAL LAUNCH FOR THE REST OF YOU! 7 PM at twitch.tv/csecooney! COME AND JOIN US!

Herald-Adjacent Awesomeness

OH, AND HERE ARE SOME BLURBS! From Cassandra Khaw and Angela Slatter OMG! 

And I wrote this wee little essay on Writing Sequels that Fantasy Hive in the UK picked up! Thank you, Fantasy Hive! 

On Writing A Sequel – GUEST POST by C. S. E. Cooney (SAINT DEATH’S HERALD)

And then, today, this wonderful reviewer on Bluesky posted their review of Saint Death’s Daughter on their YouTube channel! Here it is: 

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/UyybNktrUxE?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

At first, I was reluctant to watch it, because WHAT IF THEY HATED IT? 

(I make it a habit not to go searching for reviews of anything I write because if it’s sufficiently awful then I get disheartened and stop writing for a while whilst I imitate Thomas Chatterton upon my fainting couch… But in this case, I was TAGGED. When I’m tagged I can hardly help myself, can I?)

BUT THE REVIEWER LOVED IT INSTEAD! They called it: “A sumptuous poetic necromantic fantasy, a book I long anticipated and deeply loved. Charming, deep, effervescent. Pure magic!” 

EEEK! YAY YAY YAY! Best of all? They concocted a COCKTAIL for Saint Death’s Daughter called “PANTHAUMA” that has ALL THE CITRUSES! 

May Appearance with Caitlin Rozakis for The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association

A few months ago, I read Caitlin’s book Dreadful and laughed my butt off. A Dark Lord who’s memory-wiped himself and then has to con everyone into believing he’s still utterly evil when he’s really just… NOT!

Then I went to Kew and Willow Books for a book talk that she and my buddy Randee Dawn were doing together for their forthcoming novels. I loved that. 

And NOW I get to do a book talk with Caitlin! For her forthcoming book The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association! I’ll be getting an ARC soon to wallow in, which pleases me greatly. 

(I’ll probably read it AFTER I prep that last audiobook in May. Phew. I still have two blurbs outstanding for a couple poetry collections by friends due this month. Must do those ASAP. Then… I think I’m good for blurbs for a while. PHEW.)

When? Saturday May 31st

Where? Word Bookstore, Jersey City

What Time? 7 PM Eastern

That’s all for now, friends. Thank you for reading this far, and, just so you know, I LOVE WHEN YOU COMMENT. Thank you to the ones who do. I love to be in conversation with you. 

I do occasionally have other thoughts than SCHEDULES, and I’m trying to figure out a way to express them here… hmmm… succinctly. 

Yours truly, 

C. S. E. Cooney