Wishing you a wonderful holiday season! May you discover a book so good you can’t stop thinking about it. 🎄✨

AUTHORITY, by Jeff Vandermeer. It approaches Area X through a bureaucratic, problem-to-contain lens, simultaneously diluting the uncanny and reframing it until the incomprehensible becomes a human institution meant to protect citizens. (1/3)

In Shadow of the Torturer, Gene Wolfe has Severian consistently refer to those sentenced to torture—sometimes for life—as 'clients.' It is just one word, but it carries a lot of weight. Let’s talk 👇 (1/4)

The pursuit of knowledge. The only worthy quest for an endless existence. It's what drives the Alchemists of The Orders. It all begins at THE GENESIS OF CHANGE, in a place where time and space unfold into one another. Let me tell you about it 👇🏻 (1/6)

Very excited to share this: a short story set in the universe of my upcoming book—The Omens of War—was just accepted by a magazine and will be out next year 🙌🏻 I’ll share more once I have details about the issue!

I've been thinking about the books that found me this year, and wrote a small reflection about what lingered the most. (1/2)

THE WORLD-MAKER PARABLE by Luke Tarzian. A blend of psychological horror and dark fantasy, this novel is told through interwoven points of view that blur reality until existence itself feels unstable. It is literary, non-linear, and decidedly unique. My review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Dance With Me was nominated in seven categories to the #IndieInkAwards. This is genuinely more than I expected, and I’m very grateful for it (1/2).

Eras. Ages. Moments so world-breaking they shatter everything that came before. That's what happened in my upcoming book, THE OMENS OF WAR. So violently that its timelines are fractured. But what does that mean? 🤔 (1/6)

RAFT. A hard sci-fi that imagined a completely different universe—one that defies our laws of physics—with brilliant plausibility… then faltered, in my opinion, to reflect the impact of that setting in the society that so unwillingly inhabited it 👇 (1/3)

My book, THE OMENS OF WAR, is a genre-blender: a military setting, Thucydidean politics, eldritch intellects in a philosophical quest, and human characters whose minds become the playground of the unknown. Why did I write a literary book in a fantasy world? 👇🏻 (1/2)

Collaborative writing is a fascinating experiment in trust, style, and storytelling. Today's guest essay by Amy Minton @jajminton.bsky.social discusses the "Rosie" scene from their debut book, Discovery. Spoiler-free but full of insights and secrets. Read: liviajelliot.substack.com/p/collaborat...

Comparative politics. Game theory. The causes of war. These are some of my favourite non-fiction topics—and the Nash Equilibrium shaped the state of the world at the beginning of my book. Here's how 👇🏻(1/8)

Those moments in which I decide to replay a videogame... just to be hit with a ~40min cinematic. Don't get me wrong, I love Death Stranding, but oh well!

Not meant to be consumed quickly. Meant to be explored. THE OMENS OF WAR - Releases Feb'26

My friend @liviajelliot.com was kind enough to invite me onto her channel to discuss one of the greatest pieces of sequential art ever published: Watchmen. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' magnum opus about power, sequential art, and superheroes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=078X...

#Watchmen doesn't ask, "Who is right?" It asks: "Why do *you* think that person is right?" That's the genius of Moore's framing: the novel is a Rorschach test of morality. Your sympathies say more about you than about the characters. A thread 👇🏻 (1/4)

THE OMENS OF WAR story isn’t easy, and it isn’t meant to be. If you gravitate toward fiction that challenges you, asks you to read slowly, and rewards close attention, you might find a home here. #SpeculativeFiction #WeirdFiction #PhilosophicalFantasy #WeirdLit

Flatlands. Sheer speculation on unknown dimensions, and written by none other than a Square. This is an old book, published in 1884, and it does not fit neatly into modern-day publishing categories. It is also a social critique of Victorian Society (1/3)

The alchemists in my series, Records of The Orders, diverge from traditional eldritch portrayals. They are not reckless forces or ancient tentacled horrors, and they weren't born before humanity. So what are they? A thread👇🏻 (1/6)

Borges could change the entire mood of a scene with *one* adjective. Not a dramatic one, but an unexpected one. ➡️"The *unanimous* night." ➡️"An evening that was *near, yet infinite*." ➡️"A mirror that *troubled* a hallway." Why do these work? A thread 👇🏻 (1/4)

THE OMENS OF WAR A story shaped by ideas. Political theory, psychological depth, minds in conflict. #SpeculativeFiction #WeirdFiction #PhilosophicalFantasy

It's time to write a podcast episode, which means my browser has at least ~20 tabs of papers, definitions, author interviews, and more 😅 What can I say? I love doing it.

I read plenty of non-fiction, especially on comparative politics and the causes of war. Thucydides' analysis of why states choose conflict helped shape the political foundations of The Omens of War. Let me walk you through it 👇🏻 (1/6)

Two characters walk down the same hallway. The father—the Centurion—sees only the nation's former glory, now defaced. The son—the strategist—feels the weight of that history on his shoulders. The hallway hasn't changed, but the storyteller has. Let's unpack why. 👇🏻 (1/3)

Readers are discovering exactly what this novel is, and what it isn't. 👇🏻 #SpeculativeFiction #WeirdFiction #PhilosophicalFantasy #WeirdLit

In case you missed it yesterday, here's the updated framing for THE OMENS OF WAR 👇🏻

I've been thinking a lot about how to talk about my upcoming book, THE OMENS OF WAR. It's an unusual story: philosophical, psychological, political, nonlinear—and it took me a while to find language that truly reflects what it is. Here's what's changing 👇🏻 (1/6)

A philosophical fantasy of Thucydidean politics, eldritch beings, and psychological horror woven into fractured timelines. ⚔️THE OMENS OF WAR: A LITERARY SPECULATIVE FANTASY ⚔️ Coming February 2026! 🔗👇🏻

What happens when the world isn't real and you can't escape? New podcast episode just dropped. #PhilipKDick #Ubik, and the most asked question ever: What is Ubik? Listen: youtu.be/B1Of8JYOJ-o

Embassytown is both a meditation on language and an act of linguistic imagination itself. A novel that demonstrates what words can build, and what they can destroy. My review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

📢PREORDERS ARE OPEN! 📢 My cosmic horror fantasy—a world of war, collapse, and impossible horrors—is now available for preorder on Amazon. Check my profile. Thank you to everyone who's followed this journey from the prequel's release until now 🙌🏻

Embassytown.

This was just a great Guest Post on my Substack! Check it out, Bert-Oliver gives some very practical guidelines on how to leverage the power of conlang.

It is yet another of these days in which I need a mildly impossible-to-get political history book, and am outright shocked by its price. Why?

It feels strange to ask, but this book means everything to me 🙏🏻 DANCE WITH ME is eligible for a nomination for #IndieInkAwards and your vote could help it find its way in. I would be endlessly grateful for your support. Details in the reply 🙌🏻

The eARC has been unleashed. To those who waited in the dark: it is yours. Check your emails 👀 Thank you. For your faith, your curiosity, and your courage to enter this world before all others.

Editing another Guests Talk for my podcast, and this will be the last episode of Season 2. I can't believe BOOKS UNDONE is going strong into its 3rd year!

Two days, and the doors to The Towers of the Orders of Alchemists will open. The eARC will be unleashed. The omens of war are near. This is the last call. Sign up for the eARC! 🔗👇🏻

Cyberpunk, a genre with enormous gravity, one that all but subsumed the high-minded optimism of the sci-fi that preceded it. This week we have an extra essay from guest writer @henryneilsen.bsky.social Don't miss it: liviajelliot.substack.com/p/slow-down-...

I just finished THE HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, and it was super fun! Out of my usual preferences, but ultimately an absurdist comedy about the meaning of life and the pointlessness of the universe. My review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

This week's essay covers discusses how the order in which a character thinks about the world can be used to introduce a secondary world. And yes, it's a paragraph from my upcoming book THE OMENS OF WAR. Read it: liviajelliot.substack.com/p/worldbuild...

Read a book’s blurb and label the story for what it is, not for who wrote it.

War is the rule. Peace is just the intervals in-between. Across ages, across worlds, across societies. ⚔️ THE OMENS OF WAR: A COSMIC HORROR FANTASY ⚔️ releases on February 2026. Sign up for the eARC if you're keen on reading it before anything else. Check my profile!

In first-person narration, the prose itself showcases the narrator's mental state. This week's essay analyses one passage written in such a way, then outlines what you should consider when plotting this type of scenes. Read it: open.substack.com/pub/liviajel...

Courage is just the fear of fools, for bravery comes not from strength but ignorance. ⚔️ THE OMENS OF WAR: A COSMIC HORROR FANTASY ⚔️ releases on February 2026. Sign up for the eARC if you're keen on reading it before anything else. Check my profile!

I'm planning a merfolk cosy story, so I sort of got lost googling "cool underwater creatures" under the excuse of plotting. But truly, some actual, living underwater creatures seem straight out of a fantasy book and/or a ghibli movie!

⚔️ THE OMENS OF WAR: A COSMIC HORROR FANTASY releases on February 2026. ⚔️ Sign up for the eARC if you're keen on reading it before anyone else. Check my profile!

⚔️ Cover Reveal ⚔️ Book one of Records of The Orders comes our way in February 2026 and I cannot wait! Lovecraft meets George R.R. Martin meets Marcus Aurelius and Jean-Paul Sartre in this genre-bending cosmic horror fantasy. Cover design by @liviajelliot.com herself!

The boundaries between the mind and the universe are thin. One tear and you’ll glimpse the void. ⚔️THE OMENS OF WAR: A Cosmic Horror Fantasy ⚔️ Cover Reveal 2025.10.14