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This one is mirrored from my Substack newsletter, so… enjoy it twice! Or pass it on by…

Last month’s book launch

I’ve said this in a couple of places already, but it bears repeating like a prayer: my book launch weekend of April 24th-27th was so dear. 

My mind was weirdly uneasy in the days preceding the launch, assiduously working its hamster wheel. Would my busy New York friends make it out all the way to Queens? Would any of my Rhode Island or Connecticut friends have the time to come to Westerly? Would anyone show up to the virtual launch? What if I didn’t get the calendars done in time? What if the weird Costco cake ordering method didn’t actually work, since there’s no way to VERIFY IT??? Aaaugghhh! (Et cetera, ad infinitum.)

But each of the three book launch events was pretty much perfect. Friends not only came in from the far reaches of New York City, they came from out of state (and Su Bristow came from England!) to attend the physical launches. (Su is abroad to tour her own book, The Fair Folk, but she came way out of her way to attend my launch in Queens!) Some friends came whom I hadn’t seen in years—because of the pandemic. I got to HUG THEM! And so many, many sweet comments from folks I knew in the chat during my virtual launch. 

Oh, and then! The care and love and time and thought that Cass Khaw, Christa Carmen, Caitlyn Paxson, and of course Carlos Hernandez poured into their interviews with me felt like the most profound gift. I loved that best of all. I never want to do a launch where I’m the only one on stage ever again. It’s just BETTER in CONVERSATION!

It was like three birthday parties in a weekend, and it wasn’t even my birthday! It was Herald’s! We even had cake. And, hobbit-like, we gave everyone presents: calendars, featuring Phoebe Ashcroft’s fan art of the 12 gods of Quadiíb. Carlos helped do the graphic design, and Carla Kissane came over on Wednesday to help me staple everything, which was so joyful and playful. I’m so happy.

First, Contact: a new 10-minute musical at the Sound Bites XII Festival

At Boskone this year, Carlos and I did a Brimstone Rhine concert. He played ukulele and auxiliary percussion with the occasional solo (some “glub glubs” some “snicker snicker snacks” that sort of thing), and I sang the set we’d done at Heliosphere:

• Apex Predators (Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir) – always good to START with this one, because it’s FUNNY, and it’s cute, and it’s a good story about Carlos and me.
• Fox Girl Song Cycle 1: Carnivora (Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir) – it’s damn fun to sing, though a tongue-tangler in spots!
• The Lysistrata Strut (Alecto! Alecto!) – this one can be practically CHANTED, but it’s more fun with some kind of drum or percussion; we’ll see if Carlos wants to bring his cajon.
• Scylla on the Rocks (Alecto! Alecto!) – this is REALLY fun with the audience singing the “blub-blubs” on the refrain. A STANDARD!
• Sisters Lionheart (Ballads from a Distant Star) – a good chorus to sing along to! Also, I get to talk about the project!
• The Jub-Jub (Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir) – always good to END with this one: ROUSING FUN for the WHOLE ROOM!

We also stayed long enough to hear Romie Faienza’s set. Romie is a self-described “mild-mannered nerd bohemian,” screenwriter, director, and poet (she’s the poetry editor for Strange Horizons), and—as we found out in February—a WONDERFUL musician!

We got to talking after the concert and she says, “Hey, I may have an interesting opportunity for you in New York in April. Let me check on a few things and get back to you.” 

Then she GOT BACK TO ME. And the opportunity was a role (“Social Media 3”) in a short musical called First, Contact, a collaboration between Romie and a composer named Chris Blacker. 

For all that I had a play produced in the Estrogenius Festival in NYC years before I moved here, and mounted our own SFF folk musical in 2023, I’ve not done any other theatre here myself . The most theatre I’ve ever done in my life was during the time I lived in Rhode Island and worked with Connecticut’s Flock Theatre. And that time is now (gulp) eight years gone.

But in New York, I’ve seen a lot of theatre. I’ve supported/workshopped other people’s new work. I’ve been to Broadway shows, and off-Broadway shows. And I’ve been filled with all the concomitant longings. 

But though I am a professional actress (I keep telling myself that), I’m a voice actor. And not even one who does, like, commercials and video games. I’m an audiobook narrator. It’s a… distinct genre. Kind of like the one I write in.

So I feel like I’ve been, you know, batting out of my league this last month. My co-actors are all much closer to their theatre training (mine’s 20 years in the past), and have put it into practice much more often and recently. And their voices are huge and laser-like and soaring. And they take to choreography like gorgeous bendy things.

Theatre always makes me feel big, raw feelings, and dang. Have I been feeling them. Two days ago I came home crying. Which is not to say I haven’t been wildly happy, engaged, beamed in. I want to do this every night.

I’ve been thinking about how being in a play in New York City is like being in two plays: one is the play I’m in. The other is the play in which I’m an actor going to rehearsal in New York City. The whole city’s like a set piece. Or maybe it’s just that we’ve seen it used that way so much, as well as set pieces made to look like it. Reality and unreality collide in the hyper-real, I guess. 

Anyway! The show is tonight! The Sound Bites XII Theatre Festival, produced by Theatre Now New York. Tickets here: https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/tnny/4464

Upcoming Events

I’ll write more about these individual events later, but this month, we have two virtual events on my Twitch platform. (twitch.tv/csecooney)

Friday May 16th, 8-10 PM Eastern: Combined Reading and Interview with Mike Allen.

Mike Allen, editor and publisher of Mythic Delirium, has been a friend for a long time. He and his wife Anita are also responsible for publishing my books Bone Swans: Stories, Dark Breakers, and The Twice-Drowned Saint, in addition to my short stories “Braiding the Ghosts,” and (with Carlos, our first collaboration) “The Book of May” in Clockwork Phoenix 3 and 5 respectively. Not to mention lots of poems, back when Mythic Delirium was also a ‘zine.

Mike’s also a poet and writer—mainly, of horror—in his own right. Oh, and a journalist. The man does it all. And this year is such a year for him! He had his novel Black Fire Concerto (revised and reissued) come out with Ruádan Books, and he has another—Trail of Shadows—in the pipeline with Broken Eye Books. A banner year for him!

Since I got to NARRATE the audiobook of Black Fire Concerto a few weeks ago, and since Mike was so kind as to read Saint Death’s Herald over the last few weeks, we’re going to be interviewing each other as long-time friends and, I guess, co-workers/collaborators. And we’ll be reading from our work! It would be lovely to see you!

Then, on Monday May 19th, from 7-8 PM is our next Fiction: Impossible, this time with the poet novelist Mary Soon Lee! Definitely more on that soon!

Thank you for reading. Take care of yourselves and each other out there. There’s howling all around us. And so many teeth.

Yours truly, 

C. S. E. Cooney