Category Archives: Uncategorized

April 8, 2025 · 8:38 pm

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

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March 17, 2025 · 7:47 am

Day 1 in the Studio: Saint Death’s Herald… the Audiobook!

In 2022, when I got to record Saint Death’s Daughter the audiobook, I realized it was my moment to celebrate. Twelve years of writing that thing. Twelve drafts. The great agent hunt. My late twenties. All of my thirties. All those other works I wrote while writing it, each of them making that work better. All of the headaches. The teeth-on-concrete feeling of “this will never end, and it’s still not good.”

Whatever the book ended up being–big, weird, flawed–it was done. And it was mine.

All these celebrations were in the making, all these reviews and blurbs were coming in, but I didn’t quite know how to feel about it. My feelings rocketed around, wouldn’t settle. It was hard to feel like it was all real.

But my friend Mike Allen–the Mythic Delirium publisher who helped me make Bone Swans, and Dark Breakers, and The Twice-Drowned Saint a reality–taught me this phrase: “I stand by the work.”

Those two weeks in the studio, recording Saint Death’s Daughter, were my time to step back from a decade (plus) of doubt and despair and struggle–with this thing that I always loved but often didn’t like. Now was the time to look at work and say, “Thank you. I stand by you. Here, I pledge my voice on it.”

There’s some hoopla attending a book launch. Some press. A launch. A few signings if you’re lucky. You also get a lot of, “I always knew you’d do it,” or “I always had faith” or “it was obvious to me you’d be a success.”

It’s very sweet. It’s also… as if all those moments where I very nearly did not do it, all those fragile threads on the verge of tearing, somehow didn’t count. Were somehow, I don’t know, rendered negligible in the face of an inevitability.

What that book did not feel like was inevitable. But at some point, about midway through the 12-year process, I looked at all the years I’d already spent on it, and I thought, “If I don’t finish, what a waste of my own resources. Of my time and energy.” It would have been perfectly fine for me to trunk that manuscript. I’d trunked several others, juvenilia that I was (and am) still quite fond of). I had other books in me.

But for this one, even though I was still years away from publication, I couldn’t bear the idea of waste.

Anyway. 12 years of this kind of thinking, this back and forth, and I could finally rest. The book was being published! INCONCEIVABLE.

In early 2022, I was just only starting to recover from my deep internal fatigue since turning in the final galley proofs for Saint Death’s Daughter. What I wanted then was a celebration more intentional, more private, and much longer-lasting than a book launch and a few readings. Readers, after all–for whom I wrote this book to begin with!—could read, in a few days, what had taken me years and years to write. And then ask for the next one.

So, when I went into the studio to start recording the audiobook, I did my best to elevate the experience. My dad talks about the difference between “feast days” and “mundane days.” On a feast day, a holiday, how do you know it’s different than any other day? You dress up. Not just yourself–you decorate the space around you. For example: there’s regular dinner. And then there’s the table you spread for a holiday dinner: you use a different tablecloth. Cloth napkins. Maybe a candelabra or a bouquet of flowers or fancier dinnerware. You dress up in your best. Special shoes. Maybe you put a hat on. You make the day different. You endow it with meaning.

That’s what I did to record that week. I thought about the chapters I’d be recording that day, and I dressed to match. Now, no one looking at me would know that was what I was doing. After all, I still had to wear quiet clothes. (I call them my “ninja clothes,” but another audiobook narrator took one look at me and accused me of wearing pajamas).

But I’d put on a piece of “endowed” jewelry (Carlos got me bone jewelry to celebrate my book about necromancers), or wear a perfume oil that had a citrus note as its base (since citrus is the smell of the god of death). Every day as I walked to the studio, I’d reflect on how I was so grateful to be doing this. That I couldn’t have imagined the privilege of recording this audiobook, even though I read countless drafts of it to countless friends and family.

Today, in a few minutes, I’ll get ready to go to work. I’m recording the audiobook of Saint Death’s Herald. Funny, it doesn’t feel like it’s three years since Saint Death’s Daughter came out. But at least it wasn’t TWELVE.

The studio I’m recording Saint Death’s Herald in is in Times Square–not the one I normally go to in Elmhurst. My commute will feel different. I picked out my clothes. I’ll wear felted tiger rug earrings that Caitlyn Paxson made me, based on the character of Stripes, and a bronze raven pendant that Carlos recently got for me at Boskone. There aren’t many blackbirds in the sequel, but the shadow of the Blackbird Bride is ever with Lanie. If I get to write book 3, she’s a major player there. My shirt will be orange: one of the colors of necromancy.

It’s raining today. In the first chapter of Herald, it’s also raining. Solidarity with my protagonist… though I shan’t be raising any sweet yearling does from the dead today. Well, I will. But only with my voice, all alone in a little black box. Talking to myself. Tell future-you a story that past-me wrote for you.

It’s pretty badass.

There’s a lot of text. I have six days to do it. I’m going to be very tired by the end of the week, but I’ll have the weekend to recover and finish up next week. Wish me luck.

I’m so happy. And I’m so nervous. And so happy.

As things get darker outside the landscape of my own head, I want to share some of the things I’ve been reading:

Rebecca Solnit’s Meditations in an Emergency.

Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American

Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood, Carry Water

Anand Giridharadas’s The Ink

Robert Hubbell’s Today’s Edition Newsletter

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March 15, 2025 · 10:13 pm

A wonderful poem by the genius Jessica P. Wick.

Kim Gurnee

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March 12, 2025 · 10:04 am

Saint Death’s Herald BOOK LAUNCH

(Plus a miraculous review of my book The Twice-Drowned Saint at the Pixelated Geek)

Dear friends,

I’m so excited as my book launch for SAINT DEATH’S HERALD looms closer next month!

If you’re able, please join me at at 7 PM on Thursday April 24th at Kew and Willow Books for the launch!

We are making 2026 CALENDARS to give away, out of Phoebe Ashcrofts FAN ART for my 12 Gods of Quadiíb! There will also be snacks!

If you can’t make the launch, you can still order SIGNED COPIES from Kew and Willow. Just mention that you want it signed in the order notes!

OR, if you’re in RHODE ISLAND, CONNECTICUT, OR BOSTON-ISH, and feel like COMING TO WESTERLY, RHODE ISLAND, Martin House Books is hosting a BOOK SIGNING for me on FRIDAY APRIL 25TH at 6:30!

Please tell anyone you think might be interested!

***

Also, this AMAZING review of my book THE TWICE-DROWNED SAINT came out today at the Pixelated Geek!!!

It is so thoughtful, so thorough, just so EXACTLY what I’d want a reader to get out of that book!

I loved how surprised the author Kathryn Adams was at how entirely the opposite it was from the Saint Death books, even though it has “saint” in the title. My fault for not THINKING AHEAD to mixing, um, my brand?

Review: The Twice-Drowned Saint

If this makes you want the book, you can find it wherever books are sold, or buy it directly from the wonderful small press Mythic Delirium here!

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March 10, 2025 · 8:59 am

Fiction: Impossible, with Cassandra Khaw

TONIGHT! Monday March 10th! 7 PM EASTERN! On Twitch.Tv/csescooney !!!!

WELCOME FICTION IMPOSSIBLE, the SFF fiction and gaming talk show. This week, hosts C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez welcome horror scion and narrative designer nonpareil Cassandra Khaw to discuss what counts as scary, the CRPG renaissance we’re living through, and why they like to break narratives when they’re the one playing.

We’ll also discuss Khaw’s forthcoming book The Library at Hellebore as well as recent Cooney/Hernandenez reads: Pony Confidential and the rise of “Oops, It’s Fantasy” fiction in popular and literary fiction, Tomb of Dragons and how a series becomes beloved, and Kingdom Come II: Deliverance and why sometimes, slower is better.

See you tonight, and remember to eat this message after reading.

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February 18, 2025 · 12:51 pm

Dark Breakers “Breaker Queen” Readalong: More Chapters!

I recorded Chapters 7 & 8 of DARK BREAKERS, Book 1, “The Breakerr Queen” on twitch.tv/csecooney today, in my “Phoenix Quill Tavern” space.

Carlos helped me get the GREEN SCREEN working, so I actually LOOK like I’m INSIDE the tavern! LOVE!

I uploaded them to YouTube the DARK BREAKERS playlist as well!

The glorious genius Brett Massé is designing a logo for us! WHICH REMINDS ME! I MUST EMAIL HIM!

Chapter 7 “Piercing the Veil”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCOXlIj1RNY
Chapter 8 “Heartsease and Mercury”: https://youtu.be/A6v4whOQ_Tg

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February 10, 2025 · 9:24 am

Our Boskone 62 Schedule

We are excited for Boskone 62 this weekend!

CLAIRE’S SCHEDULE

Fri 8:00 PM:  Infernal Salon
1 Hr 25 Min, Carlton

Sat 10:30 AM: Reading: C.S.E. Cooney (with guest appearance by Carlos Hernandez)
25 Min, Independence

Sat 1:00 PM: Interview with Jasper Fforde
1 Hr, Harbor I

Sat 4:00 PM: Book Launch Party
1 Hr, Galleria – Autographing

Sat 8:30 PM: The Humorous Worlds of Jasper Fforde
1 Hr, Marina III

Sun 11:00 AM: Concert: C.S.E. Cooney (with Carlos Hernandez)
30 Min, Stone

Sun 1:00 PM: Autographing: James Cambias, LJ Cohen, C.S.E. Cooney
1 Hr, Galleria – Autographing

CARLOS’S SCHEDULE

Fri 4:00 PM: Exploring Graphic Novels in the Classroom
1 Hr, Harbor II

Fri 8:00 PM: Infernal Salon (with C.S.E. Cooney)
1 Hr 25 Min, Carlton

Sat 2:30 PM: Why Villains Can’t Carry the Story
1 Hr, Harbor II

Sat 4:00 PM: Book Launch Party
1 Hr, Galleria – Autographing

Sun 10:00 AM: When the Darkness Strikes Back
1 Hr, Marina III

Sun 11:00 AM: Concert: C.S.E. Cooney (with Carlos Hernandez)
30 Min, Stone

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February 4, 2025 · 5:05 pm

Catching Up

First, I have a new newsletter up on Substack! In it, I:

– link to Virtuous Con’s list of BIPOC creators and vendors, courtesy of Cerece Rennie Murphy’s fabulous newsletter;

– celebrate poet Gerald L. Coleman, and talks a bit about his Kickstarter for INCENDIARY: a collection of poems and essays;

– and BOUNCE WITH GLEE about the forthcoming Black Men Reading Speculative Fiction 2 event. Sign up for this amazing virtual event for free!

Today, I read two more chapters of Dark Breakers, Book 1 “The Breaker Queen,” on my nascent Twitch Channel.

You can ALSO find the whole playlist on YouTube here!

More soon. Boskone’s coming up! Eek! I will post my schedule anon.

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January 28, 2025 · 12:37 pm

Dark Breakers Read-Along

Dear friends,

I have started my experiment on TWITCH! For ease of entry, I’m doing a weekly Tuesday morning read-along of my novella “The Breaker Queen” from my collection Dark Breakers.

I’m here at twitch.tv/csecooney

This morning, my first attempt, I made it through Chapters 1 and 2.

The video buffering is a bit… buffoonish. Alas! A problem for Future Claire to solve, possibly with a more robust desktop computer! I think my little laptop can’t quite handle OBS.

But AT LEAST the audio is pretty clear, so I’m hopeful it will make a nice listen whilst friends are doing dishes or laundry or or want some company while they eat lunch.

Chapters 1 & 2 can be found here: https://www.twitch.tv/csecooney/videos

Or, if you prefer YouTube, I’m uploading them to my channel there as well: https://www.youtube.com/@c.s.e.cooney/videos

If you want to READ ALONG with Dark Breakers, but don’t have your copy yet, find it at Mythic Delirium, or wherever books are sold!

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January 24, 2025 · 1:04 pm

A New Newsletter is Available…

On my Substack. I thought about just copy/pasting it here. But it feels disheartening, somehow, to do that.

Here is where I’ll write poems, or wanderings, or schedule updates for cons. There is where I write great big swooping newsy infodumps. Not that I don’t do that here too… But, ah. Not mirroring. Not today. No.

Anyway, here’s a link. https://csecooney.substack.com/p/butreally-you-know-mr-stryver

It’s Subheadings are:

  • Things You Should Know (TL;DR, the Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic has opened enrollment for their Fairy Tale Heroines course, and you should, you know, check it out)
  • Twitch Channel (I have one: find me at twitch.tv/csecooney
  • Gaming (Hearthglow actual play updates)
  • Writing (so much, not enough)
  • Sadness.

I’ll pause here for that. On Sadness. Briefly, our friend Howard died on the 16th of this month. I just… I want to thank all of you who helped his family on their GoFundMe page we started for him a few months ago.

Death is ruinous. Sometimes it ruins everything. And sometimes enough of us step in that something can be salvaged from the wreckage.

Let us please look for more ways to help as many as we can.

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