December's Traditions
festivity and joy and seasonal affective disorder
Wrong Genre Book Covers
Song of Achilles as a “cheesy mantitty romance cover” was suggested by Magpie. Have a funny idea for a Wrong Genre Cover? Just hit the big purple button below and if Rachel likes your suggestion, she'll make it in a future issue. Go on! Do it now.
Announcements
On January 3rd, our friends at Not a Pipe Publishing will be hosting the Anti-Fascist Write-athon, and they want to make it the writer’s version of #NoKings. Imagine thousands of writers coming together (via Zoom) to work on their own WIPs, supporting the @antifali Journal, and letting the world know we refuse to lie down for a fascist takeover. You can join Rachel and others in writing against tyranny. If you’re interested, register here! Looking forward to writing with you on January 3rd!
Show Cat
LINE FROM A WIP
I dragged the point of my compass through the hem of my skirt until the gap was wide enough for me to pull it out, then similarly employed it to liberate a protractor, 45° and 90° angle set squares, an extendable ruler, and several papers containing half-completed equations I had likewise secreted about my person.
HOLIDAY BOOK BUYING GUIDE
Blight (The Sleep of Reason #2) by Rachel A. Rosen
What is it? The long-dreaded sequel to Rachel’s 2022 debut, Cascade. Blight is set three years into an eco-magical disaster under a fascist government, as the survivors regroup and rebel after their world has ended.
Who to buy it for? The burned-out leftist in your life.
Why they’ll love it? Hope in the dark. A magical climax set during the winter solstice. Giant bone tentacles emerging from the ocean to consume libertarian tech bros. You’re already living in a dystopia, so immerse yourself in a fantasy of resistance to gird your loins for the real thing.
Beneath the Starlit Sea by Nicole Northwood
What is it? A standalone romantasy about forbidden love, grief, and the courage to defy societal expectations. When a sorceress bound by duty collides with a human doctor haunted by loss, they must work together to solve a series of mysterious seaside murders while blurring the line between survival and desire.
Who to buy it for? Readers who crave heartbreak and hope in the same story.
Why they’ll love it? Atmospheric magic, lush worldbuilding, and enchanting details such as animal familiars and clever banter. Whimsy, but also high emotional stakes, a subtle coziness in every chapter, and the gentle allure of the possibilities that can come with second chances.
Gyre by Dale Stromberg
What is it? Abigail Patel is born for a second time with knowledge intact from her prior life, but no concrete memories. What she has instead is uneasy guilt—and creeping dread.
Who to buy it for? Literary fiction readers seeking small books with curious notions.
Why they’ll love it? Gyre is “a very tight, very dark Mobius strip novella with an astonishing amount of ideas crammed into it,” according to Briar Ripley Page, and Adrian Howell has called it “a deep, captivating tale of (past-)self-discovery and family bonds. The writing is flawless.”
Antifa Lit Journal Vol. 1: What If We Kissed While Sinking a Billionaire’s Yacht, edited by Chrys Gorman
What is it? A short story and poetry collection on themes of resisting fascism, including Rachel’s story about lesbian orcas, an ill-fated art major, and a billionaire on a collision course with justice.
Who to buy it for? Recently radicalized wine moms, people in inflatable frog suits, and anyone who is sick and tired of the current gong show.
Why they’ll love it? Maybe you can’t get on Santa’s list, but you can certainly get on somebody’s list by buying this book.
Book Report Corner
By Rachel Rosen
The release of a new Nick Mamatas book is always cause for celebration in my little corner of the world—his cynical, scathing, and brutally funny works always bring some new genre-bending surprises to the table. Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest is no exception.
A clever cyberpunk reimagining of The Tempest (yes, that one) for our age of oligarchy, Kalivas! leans hard into the anticolonialist interpretation of the play and gives us Caliban as the last human among augmented gods who can’t die. His peaceful, if bleak, existence on an island is shattered with the arrival of the Master, or the Prosperous One, and his daughter M., exiled from what’s left of San Francisco and hellbent on restoring his fortunes—even if it means the subjugation of everyone around him.
Kalivas is a Weird Little Guy, at once repugnant and compelling. The post-disaster world is sketched just enough for the characters to feel grounded in it despite their stylization and otherness.
It ends, naturally, with a play-within-a-play that turned out to be my favourite part because I’m turning into some kind of pomo snob. If you like your sci-fi with interiority and literary flair, this one’s for you.
DID YOU KNOW?
Newsletter subscribers get bonus content—a deleted chapter from Rachel A. Rosen's novel Cascade, and a prequel story So Human As I Am. A companion story to Instant Classic, “Have You Considered Self Publishing”. Plus, download the pdf e-book of The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don't Die.
Did you miss the download link? It's not too late! Find it here.
Author Interviews
Every Tuesday, the Night Beats blog features an interview with an awesome author. Are you an author with a cool new project? Apply for an author interview!
Rachel: Tell our readers a little bit about the book!
Kelly: It’s got some tender parts, and some brutal ones. I wasn’t sure what we would pull in when we cast our editorial net, but we received some very beautiful and unflinching work. The theme of the anthology is Rebellion, and people interpreted that in so many different ways. It’s really a full spectrum of human emotion.
Read the rest of the interview here.