Preorder alert! Amina's off on a dangerous mission to steal a spindle from a mysterious sorceress in THE TAPESTRY OF FATE, @shannonchakraborty.bsky.social's epic sequel to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. Signed Exclusive Edition with sprayed edges: www.waterstones.com/book/the-tap... 🪐💙📚 #SFF

Well this 2,600-year-old clay letter was a journey. It comes from the archive of a goldsmith named Nabû-zeru-iddin in the heart of ancient Assyria. We’ve got someone left on read, a lawsuit, a mean step-mom, and people who get drunk and steal silver.

Delighted to finally share this episode of The Ottoman History Podcast doing a historical deep dive on The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/11/chak...

Also, very early galleys of The Tapestry of Fate are in! I'm so excited to start seeing Amina's next adventure out in the wild

Finally sharing possibly the coolest thing that's happened to me this year. Al-'Usur al-Wusta, in connection with the Ottoman History Podcast, organized a round table discussion on The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. The essays can be found here, with the podcast episode soon to come!

In honor of Mother's Day, I'll be matching donations to Believers Bail Out and the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund. Please consider a donation! No parents should be facing wrongful imprisonment or occupation. believersbailout.org humanappealusa.org/donate

One of the best perks of being a writer: early books! Cannot wait to dive into these three once revisions are done and my brain ceases being mush

What a lovely discovery (and thread!)

And since I'm already logged in, might as well share the snippet I posted on Instagram from the upcoming sequel to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi!

I'm not very active here but just had to share the stunning cover of The City of Brass deluxe collector's edition. Look at Nahri! Look at CAIRO!

I was very excited to share a few of my favorite historical fantasies (set in our world) over at @nytimes.com last week: Historical Fantasy Novels Offer a Magical Escape Into the Past www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/b...

Ancient Assyrian kings didn’t just go to war with other kings. They battled queens of the Arabian peninsula, including the formidable Queen Samsi who may even be depicted on a lost stone relief mid-battle on the back of a camel. Fascinating piece by Ellie Bennet anetoday.org/samsi-queen-...

After reading this review by Emily H. Wilson, I sat in my car and wept happy tears. "a new and spellbinding book" "must-read, millennia-spanning history" I'm speechless with gratitude and pure joy. www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

i just found out that you can briskly walk the distance from the house of the prophet abraham to the house of ea-nasir the copper trader in under a minute and i genuinely don't know what to do with that information

Being a person with deadly, incurable cancer who is nonetheless still alive for an indefinite timeframe gives me an interesting metaphor that helps me deal with things like large-scale corruption in government or commerce. Bear with me for a second while I try to explain.

A rare morning I have a chance to do some writing before the kids wake up and I open my computer to this 😭

And since we’re doing this conversation again for the umpteenth time, and since people tend to associate the Middle East with “medievalness” because they’re illiterates, a reminder that smallpox inoculation was first brought to Britain via the Ottomans, thanks to Mary Montagu, an ambassador’s wife.

Update: it was indeed fantastic and I'm off to find the sequel this week!

There are some great recommendations in the replies. Thank you to everyone who responded; I'm now terribly spoiled for choice!

The scribe of this book has written, “Here is nothing missing, but a cat urinated on this during a certain night. Cursed be the pesty cat that urinated over this book… because of it many others did too. And beware not to leave open books at night where cats can come.”

mine will always be the sperm whale who reacted to a Roman soldier throwing a bottle at him off the Byzantine coast by sinking every ship he could off that coast for the next 60 years and had the emperor declare him an enemy of the state and name him after the Titan who attacked mount olympus

I might be too new to this platform for any proper engagement of this question: but what are people's favorite print magazines? One of my resolutions for the year was to read more indepth news offline, but I'm trying to think of things besides the usual suspects. Politics and history preferred

There's a certain magic to finally reading a book you've wanted to check out for years and realizing--just a few pages in--that it's going to be a delight

My first and favorite Trek. I did a rewatch last year when my daughter was born and still love it

At the AHA (@historians.org) meeting this weekend, and stunned to see this story in Bloomberg: www.bloomberg.com/news/article.... #Skystorians

Whether it's volunteering at a local school or taking soup to a sick neighbor, improving the welfare of others can also improve our own physical and mental health, a sizable body of research shows.

“The dragon-face is the dragon-face of a man, The dragon-face of a man causing evil” His presence brings drought and death, but there’s a way to get rid of him in this incantation against the evil eye from almost 4,000 years ago cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/35...

Sometimes working with manuscripts gets us really, really close to the people from the past allowing us to hear their voices. This is a story of a letter from a schoolgirl to her teacher, written probably sometime at the end of the 9th or the beginning of the 10th century. A thread 🧵 #medievalsky /1

Those were texts written by women, about women, and to women. They travelled, wrote, and read. They were connected well in the circles of power. A whole world of creativity and everyday life that we can now see thanks to the medieval manuscripts. /9

I feel vindicated by the absolutely deranged rant my poor husband had to listen to after we saw this movie

First snow of the season brings all the birds out!

Although just a tiny fragment, this cuneiform tablet tells us about a child having seizures in the 7th century BCE. A medical professional reports, “Seizure keeps attacking him. I prepared the stones and prophylactery against seizure and put them upon him” cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/33...

Wonderful short story up at Lightspeed by Tamara Masri, a Palestinian writer. Give it a read www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/insi...

Working on the Amina sequel in my old childhood library! What a delight to see how it's grown (their SFF section is so big and well curated) and an honor to see my own books shelved there

This story is fascinating and ghastly. I didn't know St. Nicholas was the patron saint of sailors! (and the theft! With a little massaging of the timeline, I could theoretically write an Amina story about body snatching Santa...) slate.com/news-and-pol...

So is she apparently. Damn, this website is fast

Look, proof of life! Fake Shannon could never

Friends, I haven't been active here just yet (got my nose to the grindstone with Amina 2 and family stuff) but apparently this account is impersonating me. Please report if you get the chance!

Preordered!

The paperback of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is out today!

Look what came in the mail! @hadeerofthesea.bsky.social

*AHEM* Good evening...

More TV news: moviesr.net/p-sci-fi-ser...

also this is neat - the medieval world awash in colors medievalsky 🗃️ english.elpais.com/culture/2024...

I never shared this here, so I'm turning up a little late to say - I've sold another two books, and the first will be a sapphic reincarnation romance between a knight and a witch!

Sometimes I still can't get over the fact that 'to bite the dust' is literally a Homeric metaphor, e.g. Il. 24.738 Ἕκτορος ἐν παλάμηισιν ὀδὰξ ἕλον ἄσπετον οὖδας "They bit the dust (lit. 'seized the ground by the teeth') at the hands of Hector".