Doing line edits and came across this: “You cut it close,” I grumbled. “You see, the thing about margins of error is that margins are big, boring blank spaces that do nothing.”

Presenting: The Queersar Not An Award for 2021! 10 (+1) examples of top-quality queer SFF. Brilliant fantasy cities, some great SFF romance, anti-Brexit Epic Fantasy, dark fantasy mystery, space opera, gonzo slipstream, a great spin-off with a particular spotlight on a throwback of the best sort.

Heyo! The @locusmag.bsky.social fundraiser has 15 days left, and you can now get a character named after you or a friend for 50% off!

Trans authors are writing some of the best SFF out there! For trans day of visibility, I grabbed a semi-random assortment of books by trans and nonbinary authors off my shelves. All of these I've either read & loved, my kids have read & loved, or are high on my TBR pile!

Some great stuff in here, and a lot of it isn't bid up unaffordable high yet! Check it out!!! www.32auctions.com/organization...

Some thoughts about writing stuff, in no particular order (this might be a long-ish thread): 1. When Old Man's War came out (2005), lots of people read it and assumed I was conservative, because of its subject matter, and sub-genre, me being a white dude from Ohio, and other various factors.

I'm reading this right now and ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT!!!!! It's killing me that I have a deadline keeping me from just blowing through the rest of it in one night. So good!!!!!!

Fantasy Hive drop one of the first reviews of MORTEDANT's PERIL and i think they liked it... "Mortedant’s Peril is a shining demonstration of an author going from strength to strength...an absolute triumph of a page-turning fantasy murder-mystery." (Possible minor spoilers.)

Spotted the Straw Hats flag at the Boston protest today

This was only a fraction of the crowd at the No Kings protest in Boston today.

Exclusive Cover Reveal: In Your Court by Kit Haley Today on the site I'm delighted to help reveal the cover of In Your Court by Kit Haley, an m/m sports romance releasing May 21st! Here's the story: Australian Matteo Russo is the first and only openly gay tennis pro. Once a brilliant junior, he…

I admit I did not click through to the article, but anyone who wonders where the weirdness has gone in a culture where One Piece is the bestselling comic of all time is looking in the wrong places Go talk to any Gen Z-er about their favorite media for 20 minutes and then tell me culture isn't weird

Tonight! Me, Brookline Massachusetts, and botfly facts! www.eventbrite.com/e/t-kingfish...

ahhhhh this issue has my time loop fucked up unicorn novelette!! 👀 with an ace protagonist and some bonus body horror!

Hey friends, do you like CATS? Do you like MECHS? Do you like SPACE? What about CATS* in MECHS in SPACE? Well, if that sounds like fun then do I have some news for you....

I swear when I send an email full of exclamation points and way too much mention of how excited I am I'm not faking it or unhinged, I'm just like this, seriously, ask anyone who's met me 😆 I was given a gift, and that gift is EXTREME ENTHUSIASM

So preorders are one of the best ways you can help an author! They signal interest to the bookstore and the publisher! Now is frankly an especially great time to preorder a lot of queer & diverse books, to signal that there's still a market despite bans! It's a way you can help plus you get BOOKS

My big dragon book drops July 14th! For the next two days you can get it for 25% at Barnes & Noble using the code PREORDER25. It's the perfect discount for a four-headed dragon who's now missing one head. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-dragon...

WHY HELLO! You may already know that Barnes & Noble is having its 25% off preorder sale! But did you know that THE LAST STAR IN THE VOID is available for preorder? And this book completes the Echo Archives trilogy! You can have the whole thing!!! www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-last-s...

One week left! Casual reminder that Worldbuilding for Masochists is eligible for Best Fancast. 😁

It's eligibility season for lists and awards, so here's my lil plug that Casthen Gain (2025) is eligible in novella categories! As science fantasy, it would be appropriate in either genre. 🫧🍲💜

COVER REVEAL AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! Today I can share the absolutely gorgeous cover for THE LAST STAR IN THE VOID, once again the work of powerful cover sorceress Lisa Marie Pompilio! BEHOLD!!!!!!!!!! 👀 www.hachettebookgroup.com/orbit-books/...

Hard to overstate how bad this is. This would be *national legislation to aid book banning*. The time to call your reps and say you are against HR 7661 is NOW.

I did not click through on this incredibly wrong take, but no. No it does not. * Anyone telling you it costs money to get trad pubbed is a scammer * If you have $25K to drop on your book go self pub and put it into marketing instead because you're unlikely to make more than that on it in trad

If anyone is at ICFA this weekend and goes to the award ceremony and manages to get a pic of my daughter accepting her honorable mention for the Dell Award (or the Must Read Books award now) I would be so incredibly grateful! I could only afford one plane ticket (for her) so I have to miss it 😭

Found this ice spike in our birdbath this morning! Apparently this is a thing that sometimes happens and the theory is that the water gets pushed up through an unfrozen hole? Ice warlock squirrels seems more likely tbh

There's a goodreads giveaway with 10 ARCs of BEING ARO up for grabs! Open until March 23rd! www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...

The second book of The Astral Kingdoms Trilogy now has both a name and a cover! DAUGHTER OF DESTRUCTION Thank you so much, @magalivilleneuve.bsky.social, for such incredible artwork. I could not have envisioned a more perfect representation of Isabelle.

This is a great craft thread! Some fantasic stuff in here that has a much broader application than just Star Wars, especially about how you can convey a lot with a little and how to layer background complexity into a scene without choking it

Thank you to everyone who played this game with me!!! We have a winner! The totally non-ominous title of Book 3 of The Echo Archives is: THE LAST STAR IN THE VOID I can't wait to share it with you!!!!!

Time to reveal the title for The Echo Archives book 3!!! Guess a letter in the comments, and if you guess correctly, I'll fill it in! See how early you can guess the full title! (If you've already seen it on my Patreon, shhhhh!) THE LAST _ _ _ _ IN THE _ _ _ _

And it's the first day of the Queer Liberation Network Fundraising Auction today! Tons of signed books, calls with agents, manuscript critiques and more! Including the illustrated edition of Murderbot, hardcover Witch King & Queen Demon, mass market Raksura: www.32auctions.com/organization...

Very honored to find THE OBSIDIAN TOWER on here!!! But also, this is an amazing list of books, and I can tell you that 2020 was a REALLY rough time to launch a book. A lot of fantastic books fell through the cracks. Definitely go check this out—there's some great stuff you might have missed!

"What are the experiences of people of color in the publishing industry?" arleysorg.com/by-the-numbe...

The Last Hour Between Worlds, and its sequel, The Last Soul Among Wolves by @melissacaruso.bsky.social HANDS DOWN. I'm SO OBSESSED with these books! The worldbuilding is unique and rich and fascinating! The prose is beautiful and evocative! And the MC, Kembral, has my whole entire heart!

It always warms my heart so much to hear about fellow parents finding themselves in TLHBW! 😊❤️

Here is a very cozy Lupa if you need some calm today

Starting the week with promo in the midst of the hellscape: join me and @annaleen.bsky.social at @booksinc.bsky.social Palo Alto on 4/21 for the launch of THE PHOTONIC EFFECT! RSVP for free here! If you're not local, you can order a signed copy to ship here too: www.eventbrite.com/e/mike-chen-...

Over on IG, I'd paused dog photos to tease the cover and title of my YA debut. Now you get it in its full glory with no tease: OF SORCERY AND SCIENCE (formerly A MAGICAL SCIENCE) comes out in September from Running Press Kids. Artist: Max Marin Design: Mary Boyer Preorder: tinyurl.com/3524ydkt

I feel like midlist SFF is both vitally important and uniquely threatened right now because the midlist is where you find most of the queer, PoC, and otherwise marginalized authors. As well as a lot of really exciting books trying new things! Stuff that's not a "safe bet" but often a great read

So I feel (both as a reader & author) like discoverability of new books is down lately, especially for the midlist. Please tell me some recently published (past year-ish) SFF books you loved that are midlist/overlooked/deserve more hype! (And please share your recs/this list!) My recs in reply!

My first ever adopt! YOU could own this Minty Man'ari character design and also donate to the Stand With Minnesota Fundraiser while you're at it! Starting Bid: $50 | Buyout: $150 Min. Increment: $5 Bid in this thread 🔽 Ends 24hr after first bid & includes high res art! #warcraft #art

The blizzard dumped enough snow on us that it's now more than one Lupa deep and she is not at all sure about this, but I did manage to get her to come out in it with me a little bit! Short thread of my snow dog!

OK, last call for longlist nominations for this queer SFF project I'm doing: here's 2024! Honestly an absolute banger of a year for it. Here's my initial list, what else in 24 would you give an A- or above in the queer SFF space? Next up, the very first *non-award* for 2020, sometime early March

I'm going on tour!! This is only part 1 of the stops to come, but please come join me to talk about books, fantasy, and cats. We kick things off in the Bay Area at the Redwood City Public Library in Redwood City, CA on March 3rd at 6:15 with Fireside Books! #bayarea

I'm very proud of the Knight Watch and I think you're all going to love it. I wrote a thread about it here a little while ago: bsky.app/profile/thom...

Very excited to have received this advance copy of MORTEDANT’s PERIL by @rjbarker.bsky.social !!! Can’t wait to dig in!!!

I'm stoked that the Humble Bundle of my and @annaleen.bsky.social's books from Tor has raised nearly $5000 for the TGI Justice Project and Miss Major/Alexander Lee Black Trans Cultural Center. www.humblebundle.com/books/charli... Let me tell you about when I went to the TGIJP's anniversary party

In a month where everything is romantic, @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social recommends an alternative. Here's 5 excellent backlist books featuring asexual characters!

Today Lupa and I walked in the woods on a trail where the only footprints ahead of us were deer and mice and rabbits. Pic thread! Here's Lupa forging her way through chest-deep powder (she had such a great time)