Sun-sational July vibes
Also, books!
Wrong Genre Book Covers
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo as a pulp mystery was suggested by Elizabeth. 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
Last chance to vote in the Aurora Awards!
Voting for the Aurora Awards closes July 12. Rachel is nominated in three categories:
Best Novel: Blight (The Sleep of Reason #2)
Best Short Story: “What If We Kissed While Sinking a Billionaire’s Yacht?”
Best Fan Related Work: Wizards & Spaceships podcast
If you are a member of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA), you can vote for her (and the many other talented nominees) through the CSFFA website.
Rachel reads at the Canadian Fiction Fest!
Come hear Rachel read as part of Canada Fiction Fest—whether you’re in Canada or not! To register for this or any of the other great panels, click here!
Cold Blooded is a Self-Published Science Fiction Competition semi-finalist!
Cold Blooded by Rohan O'Duill has made it into the Semi-finals (last 10) of the Self Publishing Science Fiction Competition for 2026. This year’s event is adjudicated by 5 groups of volunteer judges and the winners will be announced in September. The full list of books still in contention can be found here.
The Devil You Know comes out July 22!
The Devil You Know is coming out July 22, and you can pre-order a signed copy (Canada, America)! This story is for anyone who loves soft demon vibes, forbidden desire novels, and craves a story featuring a second chance at love in historic New York City.
What’s the Worst That Could Happen?: Writing Dystopian Fiction with Rachel A. Rosen
If you’re in the Toronto area, check out Rachel’s interactive workshop where you too can create your own nightmarish hellscape. August 8th from 2:30-4:00 at Lillian H. Smith in the Merril Reading Room. Click to register!
Show Cat
LINE FROM A WIP
Normalcy bias was real, and there’d been pockets of idiots who still thought that they could petition and protest their way out of it.
Book Report Corner
By Zilla Novikov
Man with the Long Hair: They say that dreams are only real as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?
--Waking Life
This is going to be a weird review, but this is a weird book. Stay with me.
When I was in high school three of the movies I loved most in the world were Run Lola Run, Oldboy, and Waking Life. Disjointed realities. Broken connections. Who would you be if you weren't. This book reminds me of all of them. This book reminds me of all the things I've loved in the world that etched themselves on my body and mind like a tattoo, like a gravestone.
”Lord God, sometimes it feels like Tian’s whole life is sleepwalking through a graveyard, tracing the carved names of all the people and things that could never love her back.”
--Wake Up!
High school was like that, young adulthood was like that, repetitions of loss, reaching for things I couldn't grasp. Growing up doesn't spare you from loss but it changes it. Tian knew that her brothers knew she loved them, even if she couldn't say it. She carried them with her forever, tattoos and scars on her body, shared burdens and joys with their memories. And she let herself change. She let love change her.
Sometimes we get a second chance. To say goodbye. To find someone new. Does it matter if it's a dream or reality?
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: With us today is Joy Michael Ellison to talk about a book I’m so excited about. Joy, can you introduce yourself, and tell our readers a little bit about Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution!?
Joy: Hey there! I’m Joy Michael Ellison [they/them]. I’m a white, disabled, queer and trans person currently living on the traditional lands of the Narragansett nation. I am a writer, a professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at University of Rhode Island, and a life-long grassroots, community activist. My approach to organizing is shaped by the three years I spent in Msafer Yatta, Palestine supporting Palestinian- led popular movements and my experiences working in transformative justice movements in Chicago, Illinois. As an author, I am interested in using stories, both fictional and true, to build community, document social movements, and imagine a liberated world. I believe that storytelling is integral to healing, transformation, resistance, and survival.
Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution! is my first children’s book. It tells the story of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, two trans women of color who made history during the Stonewall Rebellion, kickstarting the movement for acceptance of queer and trans youth. Sylvia and Marsha help trans girls like them by sharing what they have in abundance: friendship. They show us all that beside our best friends, we can change the world.
Rachel: Tell us about the journey from concept to publication. What was your process, and how did you collaborate with Teshika to bring the story to life?
Joy: Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution! is an unintentional case study in what it takes for queer and trans people to break into conventional publishing. In fact, this book started out as a joke—one of those unfunny things you tell yourself when you’re afraid to try because you know how much systemic oppression is against you. I decided that I was going to write a picture book about the Stonewall Rebellion that would never be published. I had been reading every primary source I could about Sylvia and Marsha as a part of my graduate studies and I yearned to share what I was learning with a wider audience. So, I wrote and revised the text, took a class on picture book publishing, (the teacher seriously told me that I should write a book about “trans seahorses” instead), revised more, and submitted to a dozen publishers. After receiving as much rejection as I could stand, I decided to self publish.
I knew that my community would buy this book. I approached a local artist’s collective and hooked up with Teshika. Together, we crowdfunded the book. Naturally, as soon as we proved that there was a market for it, capitalists came knocking. Because I had discovered that self-publishing is a nightmare for my anxiety, we sold the book to a traditional publisher. Because of that, I was able to find an agent who turned around and sold four more picture books about queer and transgender history, the first of which is “Willi Ninja: Vogue Legend,” coming out May 2026.
Now I spend more time writing and more time…let’s call it “gentle-parenting” publishers into letting me do right by the historical figures I write about. My experience shows how much we’re trapped by capitalism, and what queer and trans people can do when we go outside of normal channels.
Read the rest of the interview here.