What do you mean it's still five weeks to DEAD HAND RULE?!

It’s #MailbagMonday! This week brings us ladyknights & generation ships, weird cities in wastelands & tree stumps, magical histories & medieval futures, short stories & expansive sagas, writers from around the world & close to home, classics & new voices alike. What are you most excited for?

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In a year already full of great books, THE WORKS OF VERMIN is 1000% my book of 2025 🔥🐛🐛🐛💖🐛🐛🐛🔥

Once again thinking about the gothic of it all to have an unbroken chain of brother-dads.

In an age of anxiety, the gothic, the rot at the heart of the world, always has something to say.

THE BOOK EATERS by @sunyi.bsky.social is a mid-90s gothic where books & brains are on the menu. A mother's love knows no bounds. If you like exvangelical vibes & harsh families, you'll love. Our drink, Inktea, tastes like a long evening in a deep-shadowed library. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUNm...

I love Foundation for a lot of reasons, but one of the best is that there are people on their team who are exceptionally horny for man ass and that's a critical segment of our television ecosystem.

I'll have more to say (and sip) in a couple months, but you NEED to preorder THE WORKS OF VERMIN by @hironennes.bsky.social. It is ambitious powerful speculative fiction, soaked in ichor & perfume, a vengeful fever dream of operas, executions, & unending revolution in a Weird city riddled with rot.

We gotta give it a rest with the $25 novellas. That simply cannot be the move.

NEW VIDEO ALERT! Today on Bar Cart Bookshelf we’re talkkkg about THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER by David Demchuk & Corinne Leigh Clark. A propulsive historical thriller in the underbelly of Victorian London, & a bold epistolary retelling of the iconic penny dreadful. Our drink is what else? The Mrs. Lovett!

He really is That Girl

It's Mailbag Monday!! This week brings us gay monsters from the vampiric to the lupine, haunted houses & far future hustlers, a Rome that wasn't, weird cities, magic schools, dark Filipino short stories, world history, & a pattern deck from the world of the Rook and the Rose. What looks good to you?

Backlist Bar Cart Bookshelf! THE FIRST BINDING by @rrvirdi.bsky.social. A grand epic fantasy about the power of storytelling, & the stories we tell about ourselves, this novel inspired The Gold Road, a spiced mocktail perfect for the Mutri Empire or any autumn air! youtu.be/yg5LIrE3Tgg

Delighted to see @hironennes.bsky.social 's "The Breath of Kannask" from Northern Nights selected for the Year's Best Canadian F&SF #3. Northern Nights garnered 3 award nominations, and had 4 stories selected for 'Best Ofs'. Not bad for a book I can't seem to give away. :-)

COPIES OF VERMIN HAVE ARRIVED! You know what that means: time to play at booktography while spreading my monstera mites to every plant in the apartment. (never let it be said I cannot multitask)

Ty, Elias.

Backlist Bar Cart Bookshelf! THE FIRST BINDING by @rrvirdi.bsky.social. A grand epic fantasy about the power of storytelling, & the stories we tell about ourselves, this novel inspired The Gold Road, a spiced mocktail perfect for the Mutri Empire or any autumn air! youtu.be/yg5LIrE3Tgg

Cold brew hit me like a TRUCK today. He's Energetic!

My most toxic work trait? I sit in my bed and tippy type. Bad for my wrists, I know; bad for my sleep, I know; will I stop? Not a chance!

Thank you to the fembot on Telegram who messaged me “Just be happy!” this afternoon. A beneficent message from the void in these trying times.

Really is appalling the state of coffee service at "brunch restaurants" in this, the year of our lord 2025. You should have a they/them barista cranking lattes in your brunch restaurant in this, the year of our lord 2025.

being a bitch with standards means starving to death these days.

Divest from the "Novel That Wishes It Were a Screenplay" industrial complex NOW

I just found out that it’s Dragon Appreciation Day, so I had to pull together a stack quick as flame. I love dragons (I mean, who doesn’t?) & whether they’re being ridden, slain, studied, or swooned over, I’m eager to add their stories to my hoard. What are your favorite dragon books?

Thank you to the fembot on Telegram who messaged me “Just be happy!” this afternoon. A beneficent message from the void in these trying times.

I need a timeline cleanse. How about a table of contents announcement! That’s right—despite the world being on fire, it’s time to reveal the TOC for Year’s Best Canadian F&SF Volume 3! It was VERY hard to narrow the list down but it's all killer, no filler. The book launches October 14. Enjoy! 1/2

"but if we ___ we'll look bad" what if you instead spoke and acted with such conviction that you could convince the public and there would be no way to make assumptions about what you stand for

OMG A COCKTAIL INSPIRED BY MY BOOK?! This is so amazing, thank you so much, @eliaseells.bsky.social!

It's A BONE-Y ANNIVERSARY for @lmanusos.bsky.social and From These Dark Abodes! we've got some FREE activity and COLORING PAGES 🎨 we've got an ebook SALE 📚 and we've got a reason to frolick! 💃 💀 check out all the fun here: psychopomp.com/a-bone-y-ann...

I implore you to read A DOWRY OF BLOOD by @stgibson.bsky.social

A DOWRY OF BLOOD by @stgibson.bsky.social was the very first book we covered on Bar Cart Bookshelf and a delight to revisit in hardcover last fall! The bi polycule held in Dracula's thrall ache with desire (for flesh, for vengeance) and the Brides' Kiss is a perfect autumn cocktail. LINK BELOW.

Happy Fifth Anniversary to Hades!!

STOP RUNNING CIA SPOOKS AS DEMOCRATS! FUCK!!

I can think and I *love* to get tanked!

Anyway I wrote about this last year at Lit Hub and had a ton of people coming out of the woodwork to yell at me about it and GUESS WHAT MOTHERFUCKERS I WAS RIGHT. This is happening and it sucks, even if it isn't happening to YOU specifically. lithub.com/have-you-pur...

Pub Day!!

“Can I get you anything?” “Clothes,” he said. “And a bourbon.” “And some sleep,” Abernathy added. “Tomorrow, I have to tie you to a chair.” WICKED PROBLEMS

NEW VIDEO ALERT! Today on Bar Cart Bookshelf we're talking about AUDITION FOR THE FOX by Martin Cahill. A novella of divine blessings, tricks across time, & the spirit of revolution, I loved this new addition to one of our oldest story forms: the animal fable. Our drink is T’sidaan, Fox of Tricks!

I was riveted from the very beginning of @domsdickey.bsky.social’s weird time-travel-cloning-murder-sisters novella REDUNDANCIES AND POTENTIALS, just saying.

It’s Subtle Sorcerer Saturday!

Today's the day!

Choose your fighter: Gnostic Mass or drag brunch?

NEW VIDEO ALERT! Today on Bar Cart Bookshelf we're talking about THE SUNFORGE by @understatesmen.bsky.social. The perfect inflection point of science fantasy, this novel was emotionally affecting and all too timely, a book that utterly swept me along. Our drink, Radovan, is a city on fire.

COCKTAILS AND CONSOLES came out one year ago today!! What better way to mark the occasion than sharing my calendar of upcoming events for this season? I’m looking forward to fresh conversation, fun demonstrations, & bonding over great drinks & games across the Bluegrass. Can't wait to see folks!

I HOPE you've watched this week's Bar Cart Bookshelf. I'll fall to DESPAIR if you haven't.

if you stiiilll like lesbiannnnns i have mooooore lesbiannnnnsss (yes, i made that knife) (yes, it’s thematically relevant)

Arioch, are you free next Friday 👉👈

we made a thing for you it's the @fantasymagazine.bsky.social back issues--those that we have online, anyway. acquiring an older property like Fantasy reveals... quirks. starts with issue 48... 🤷🤷🏼‍♀️🤷‍♂️ we're working on 1 - getting the older issues online, and 2 - making all the URLs prettier njoy

The discourse over Kirk’s career is really hammering home how little the media and so many Dems understand the concept of lying or bad faith arguments. An entire life dedicated to poisoning the well under the guise of ‘an exchange of ideas’ and nobody is capable of calling it out for what it was.