So, maybe you’ve heard tell of these “supply chain issues” that are plaguing everything from lumber to microchips to monkey chow. I mean, I just assume the thing about monkey chow? Whatever. Point is, add one more things to the list of supply chain woes:

Books.

What’s causing this supply chain problem with books? I have no idea! Trees for paper? Printing problems in China? Shipping issues domestically? All of the above? No idea.

(I blame goblins. Book-hating goblins.)

So, a lot of books are having their release dates pushed back, sometimes just a couple weeks, sometimes many moons, even pushing 2021 books into 2022, or 2022 books into the Next Glacial Epoch, where they will be read by an advanced race of space-faring trilobites.

Either way, Dust & Grim has fallen victim to these supply woes, but fortunately only had the release date bumped back by two weeks.

Old release date was October 5th, and the new release date is October 19th.

What does this mean? Beyond not getting the book on the date you ordered it?

It means:

a) The events are pushed back, and new event schedule is below.

b) It means if you pre-ordered already, you should check to make sure the pre-order still holds. Some retailers — Amazon has been known for this — will simply cancel all pre-orders if a release date is juggled around. I expect your local indie store will hold firm, but it may be best to call to check.

c) It means if you have not pre-ordered, and you’d like to be guaranteed a print copy, please do pre-order. Even moreso than in Normal Times, pre-ordering now (this book and any upcoming books by authors you like) will help to guarantee you’ll get a physical copy. Shipping and printing woes may still limit copies and waiting till the book is out could ensure the print version is not available. Hopefully not, of course, but pre-ordering helps you get ahead of that particular issue — bonus, it’s good for me, the bookstore, the publisher. It’s bad for the book-hating goblins.

d) If you’re procuring from a library, instead, you can ask them to order the book.

So! That said —

Where should you pre-order?

If you want a signed/personalized copy, my two locals can sort you out:

Doylestown Bookshop

Let’s Play Books

(They can ship to you.)

I’ll also be doing virtual events (dates below) with Books of Wonder, Scrawl Books, Porter Square, Anderson Bookshop.

You can also find a local indie through Indiebound, or buy through Bookshop.org.

B&N, too, is a good choice for print copies — and you can find other buy links here!

New (virtual) events schedule:

Or, outside of the image, text schedule:

Monday, 10/18, 6PM EST, Virtual launch event at Books of Wonder with Matt Wallace (not, erm, Matt Wallance, you can’t trust that Wallance guy), tickets here. Pre-order Matt’s wonderful Supervillain’s Guide to Being a Fat Kid.

Tuesday, 10/19 6:30PM EST, In-person (!!) event at Let’s Play Books, Emmaus, PA, event details here. All the other events are virtual but this one is theoretically in-person — I’ll have details as to what this entails, I believe it’s going to be outside, not sure about vaccination requirements, I expect masking will be necessary, etc. — and further, expect that the event could go virtual at any moment. Like, whoosh, we’re in the Matrix.

Wednesday, 10/20, 7PM EST, Virtual event at Anderson’s bookshop with Greg Van Eekhout. Event calendar here. And checkout Greg’s newest, Weird Kid, which my own kid adored.

Friday, 10/22, 7PM EST, Virtual event at Porter Square Books with Delilah S. Dawson. Details here. Grab Delilah’s spooky good time, Mine.

Tuesday, 10/26, 7PM EST, Scrawl Books Book Club Event, details here.

Who Did The Art?

The artist who did the cover, and the interior art, is the wonderful Jensine Eckwall. All of it beautifully art directed by Karina Granda!

Blurbs

“A clever, heartwarming tale of funerary rites, ghosts, and the undying power of family.”—Holly Black, Newbery Honor-winning author of Doll Bones and The Cruel Prince

“Wildly inventive, totally hilarious, and unexpectedly moving.”—Lev Grossman, bestselling author of The Silver Arrow and The Magicians

“A one-of-a-kind delight—mysterious, exciting, inventive, sometimes scary and always funny, Dust & Grim reads like a rollicking ghosts and monsters story, which it is. But just as important, it’s a compelling and tender story about family. Sibling duo Molly and Dustin will find their way into readers’ hearts as surely as they find their way into each other’s.”—Trenton Lee Stewart, bestselling author of The Mysterious Benedict Society

“Sucks you in with a wise-cracking zaniness that soon spirals into a delightful rampaging chaos of swarming vampires, thorny wolves, walking trees, and eldritch horrors. And yet even as the dangers for Molly and Dustin increase and the wise-cracks keep flying, the importance of family both lost and found grounds their story with a profound sense of heart.”—Paolo Bacigalupi, bestselling author of The Windup Girl, Ship Breaker, and Zombie Baseball Beatdown

“Spookily charming, bewitchingly creepy, full of hope, heart, and horror, Dust & Grim is the sort of book you gobble up in one sweet and salty bite.”—Delilah S. Dawson, author of Star Wars: PHASMA and Mine

“Every line of Dust & Grim is packed with a laugh, a sharp observation, or something radically cool, and sometimes all three at once. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Wendig is a welcome new voice in middle-grade fiction, and we are lucky to have him.”—Greg van Eekhout, author of Weird Kid, COG, and Voyage of the Dogs

“Siblings Molly and Dustin Grim are the most unlikely of heroes, and for that reason they are among the greatest. The fact that they must save the world from within a secret monster mortuary is only the first of many surprises that bestselling tale-spinner Chuck Wendig has created for this full-of-heart debut about trust, friendship, and the importance of having the perfect costume for every occasion. A fantastic, spooky adventure!”—Fran Wilde, Nebula Award winning author of Updraft and Riverland

“Playing to strengths demonstrated in his many comics and tales for older audiences, not only is Wendig a dab hand at concocting extremely creepy critters, but here he also pulls together a secondary cast of quarrelsome but supportive allies for the beleaguered teens.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Monstrously fun…. A sure pick for those enamored by Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (2008), and Tahereh Mafi’s Whichwood (2017).”—Booklist

Right out of the gate let’s ask — are these kinds of updates interesting to you? Meaning, just the general here’s some stuff I’m doing, here’s some things I’m enjoying, hey look, birds, bugs, and dogs. If they are, I’ll do more. If they’re not, I’ll do less, and also I’ll collect my many tears in little phials and sell them to various wizards, sorcerers, and magical ne’er-do-wells as a vital reagent for their mystical crimes.

Anyway, let the updates begin.

Dust & Grim, Delayed

I’ll have more info shortly about tour dates, but Dust & Grim is delayed two weeks due to *star shooting across sky leaving a rainbow behind* SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES. What does this mean? Well! This means it will be coming out on October 19th, so please check your pre-orders and such accordingly. Pre-orders are especially useful right now to help guarantee you get a printed copy if you want one. You can nab signed/personalized copies from either Doylestown Bookshop or Let’s Play Books. You’ll know more when I know more!

Our Dog’s Butt Is Haunted

Our Frankencorgi Shepherd, Snoobug, has a haunted butt.

It has been haunted for a while by some kind of sinister butt ghost(s), and it has required occasional medical intervention on behalf of this haunted butt (scientific term: “infected anal glands,” I’m sorry, I know that’s not a term anyone wants to hear or think about, I hope you didn’t just eat breakfast), usually in the form of antibiotics. Which is where we are at, again. One problem: the antibiotics make her go fucking batshit for a little while — last time was only for a day or two. Day two of the course this time, oh my god, she became an entirely different dog. She’d fart, and then jump up like a ghost bit her ass, and then she’d instantly become Velcro Dog. She’s always sweet, to be clear, but she’s usually content to come in for a petting or two, then bail. And further, she’s always a little wonky, and there are places in our house she just won’t go — she’s never been in the downstairs bathroom, never in the laundry room, never ever jumped up on the couch.

Yesterday, she did all three. Without thinking, without reserve. We found her in the laundry room at one point. She followed my wife into the bathroom while she showered. I was on the couch, playing Deathloop (which is a lot of fun, if you care), and suddenly, BUTT GHOST, and she was crawling up into my lap. And she has never, ever done that in seven years.

This morning she seems a little calmer, so here’s hoping the meds are successfully exorcising the Anus Wraiths (who I saw open for Ministry in 93, by the way). Because failing that, the vet is recommending a very expensive operation, whiiiiiiich is not great. She already had to have some kind of “cold laser” procedure on her butt. The vet probably just made that up, didn’t they? Whatever. Point is, buy my books, because hahaha ow. Buy a book, help a dog. How nice.

I Make Pizza Now, I Am Pizza Chuck, Itsa Me, Chucky-o

Okay, I’m not really good at making pizza yet. But I’m getting better. I have an Ooni pizza oven, and I say this not as any kind of paid endorsement, but it’s fucking legit. It is as promised — you pop that thing on and fifteen minutes later, it’s 900 degrees. Like Walter White, it’s ready to cook. Pizza goes in on peel, ~2 minutes later, done pizza.

My preference is that Neapolitan-style crust, thin and chewy — my recent effort was the Babish recipe, and I usually like his recipes, but I either did something wrong or, ennh, I dunno. Gonna go with Kenji next, as his recipes are usually very reliable — his scrambled eggs situation was sublime. (Cornstarch, salt, and butter. Perfect scrambled eggs every time. Also, sans butter, works with omelettes, makes them amazing.)

It’s Heirloom Apple Season, Motherfucker

And I will be getting heirloom apples this year however I jolly well can. And instead of reviewing them on Twitter, which is a Hell Realm, I’ll talk about them here, because this place needs some appley goodness.

It’s Also Fall Migration, Motherfucker

It’s that time when all the Cool Birds leave their soon-to-be-wintry climes and fuck off south, which means it becomes Warblertown up around here (WHO RULE WARBLER TOWN, WARBLER ADORBLER RULE WARBLERTOWN), and of course it’s fall warblers, so they all look the same, the little bastards. But they’re great. Birds don’t give a shit about our stupid problems and they’re cool and we should try to make the world a better place, if for nothing else than birds and apples.

Remember, too, fall migration is time to turn out your lights at night.

Save the birds, save the world.

Hey, Get Vaccinated, You Jabronis

I don’t mean to get all “””political””” on this here Bird-and-Apple Blog, but PA just released their numbers, and 94% of their COVID cases are unvaccinated people. Now, I understand those numbers don’t likely include breakthrough infections that are mild or asymptomatic, because we do not test robustly, and people who only have mild symptoms may get no tests at all (especially during allergy season), but just the same, that still underscores the fact that those getting tested likely have serious enough illness to warrant the tests. What this means of course is that

WOW, WHOA, VACCINES WORK

WHO KNEW

IT’S NOT LIKE VACCINES ARE THE ABSOLUTE BACKBONE OF OUR CIVILIZATION OR ANYTHING OH WAIT, THEY TOTALLY ARE??

HEY, DID YOU GET POLIO LAST YEAR

HOW ABOUT SMALLPOX

NO?

WEIRD I WONDER WHY

I WONDER IF IT’S THESE *checks notes* AWESOME VACCINES WE HAVE

JESUS CHRIST GET VACCINATED

Ahem. I’m sure most of you very awesome people are already vaxxed! But if you’re not, hey, fix that immediately. It is likely to save your life. And here you might be saying, “Buh, buh, but why do care if I exercise my HEALTH FREEDOMS not to stick myself with the BILL GATES DEMON JUICE,” and here I’ll note it’s because if you get sick from COVID and end up in the hospital, you’re taking a bed that could go to someone whose disease is not their own fault. And if you’re not vaccinated, guess what? That’s your own damn fault. So let’s not choke the hospital system and bring it to its knees. Let’s free up beds for cancer patients and sick kids, not Johnny Covidtown who should’ve fucking known better and just gotten the FREE and HARMLESS vaccine that would’ve saved his life instead of ending it pain-throttled and alone on a ventilator shoved down his throat. Cool? Cool.

Pennsylvania: Tornado Alley!

Over the last couple months we’ve had two incidents of tornadoes ripping through our area — the first time, we had one tornado hit a half-mile north of us, and a second one hit a half-mile south. This past time, about three-four miles south of us, and in fact, it tore its way through my sister’s backyard, knocking down a line of trees. What a mess. Seven tornadoes on the first go, nine this time. BUT HA HA CLIMATE CHANGE ISN’T A THING, right? You know Pennsylvania, it’s known for its tornadoes. Probably. Maybe. Shut up.

Most Ted Lasso Hot Takes Are Bad, Actually

If not bad, then just plain silly. This is not an exhortation for you to like the show or for you to find it without problem, I just thought it odd that at the start of this second season, we were deluged with a barrage (or barraged with a deluge) of Bad Ted Lasso takes, ranging from the Wow This Season Isn’t Going Anywhere to The Show Is Bad And You Should Feel Bad For Liking It, all of which are wrong and bad and shhhh. Just stop. Let people like things. And also let a show do its thing before you judge it. Now that we’re deeper into the season, it’s really going some important places, and I want to go along on that ride. You don’t have to, but I think it’s pretty great. I want to let it have its say before I judge it. Also, Roy Kent forever, please and thank you. And Sam! And Rebecca! Yes. Anyway. Moving on. It’s also still okay if you don’t like it. Just don’t tell me about it.

Some Things Wot I Enjoyed Recently

The Murderbot Books, getting caught up on them — Martha Wells

McCammon’s Matthew Corbett books

Evil, on Paramount-Plus

Kid Cosmic, Netflix

Just finishing up Delilah Dawson’s The Violence, and whooooa dang

Premee Mohamed’s Annual Migration of Clouds

Cassandra Khaw’s The All-Consuming World

Infinity Train, HBO Max

Birds and Bugs, As Promised

Here are some birds and bugs I’ve seen recently (with more at Flickr):

Buy My Books Or I Die

The Book of Accidents is available, and primed for your SPOOKY SEASON needs. It’s creepy and it’s kooky, it’s altogether spooky. Coal mines, haunted houses, serial killers, maybe a demon, some interstitial realms. It’s a blast. Go get. Or I die writhing in the abyss. And leave a review, somewhere, pretty please? With a pick-axe on top?

A guest post from Emily Wenstrom about ADHD representation in fiction — please read, and then check out her new novel, Departures.

***

When I first got my ADHD diagnosis in high school, I had no choice but to be loud about it. This all came about in the first place because years of good academics and a reputation as the quiet, low-maintenance girl in the back of the room let my symptoms go by unnoticed for years, until my grades took an abrupt nosedive as the different structure and higher challenges of high school caught up with me.

Even with my Section 504 in hand, multiple teachers actively resisted granting me rights as simple as an extra copy of the text book.

I didn’t have ADHD, I played too many sports. I didn’t have ADHD, I didn’t belong in advanced math. I didn’t have ADHD, I just needed to be more responsible.

I could rant for a while on this, but the point is, there was pushback to the point of animosity, based on stereotypes about what ADHD is and what it should look like. I guess I didn’t look like that, to these teachers.

But a universal truth about high school is that it ends, thank goodness. I educated myself about my symptoms and associated weaknesses, and eventually found ways to address them enough to go unnoticed.

And for a very long time after that, I took advantage of my option to be very quiet about my ADHD (to be clear, this ability to choose to go unnoticed is privilege in action–not all ADHD-ers or other neurodiverse folks have this option). I didn’t want the baggage that came with the label. Especially in my career, I didn’t want to give anyone the ammunition to read into a typo or request for a deadline extension – I would be perfect all the time (at least to the external observer), and they would never have to know. The cost of the baggage associated with ADHD just felt too high.

Because just like my high school teachers, what so many people fail to understand about ADHD, is that this different type of brain wiring can come with strengths just as much as it does weaknesses.

I can hop on my soapbox and shout this until I’m blue in the face … but I think better representation in fiction could be a lot more powerful.

Representation in Fiction Meets a Basic Human Need

From POC to LGBTQIA to physical disabilities and neurodivergence of all kinds, combinations thereof, and beyond, representation matters.

As Psych Today explains, feeling seen is a basic human need we all share. This includes consideration of our needs and requests, equitable access and treatment, and representation, too. Seeing ourselves represented in stories is one wonderful and important way to accomplish this. Conversely, the failure of inclusion is also powerful—and damaging.

As a child, I gravitated toward characters who shared my symptoms long before I even knew what they were symptoms of. I sought out catharsis else where in characters who I felt shared my symptoms, like Anne Shirley and Meg Murry.

Seeing these dynamic, multidimensional, heroic characters who shared my struggles (and, most importantly, overcame them) filled me with hope and shifted my self-perception. If these characters could overcome these struggles, maybe I could too. If these characters shared my flaws but were still worthy of love and support and being rooted for, maybe I was too.

ADHD Representation in Fiction

There is a notable lack of ADHD representation in fiction. There are a number of books for children with ADHD written specifically to this audience to help them understand their diagnosis and cope with symptoms. These have value, but when it comes to mainstream stories about more than ADHD 101, it’s a struggle to find more than a few examples.

Go ahead and try to look up a list of ADHD characters—most will in fact offer characters who were retroactively diagnosed by the list writer, rather than the author, because that’s the best we can do. Did you know Emma Woodhouse had ADHD? Sherlock Holmes?

In fact, I was so accustomed to not seeing neurodiverse representation in stories, it took exposure to better role models to realize what was missing. Authors like Corinne Duyvis who has long pushed for better representation of neurodiversity and disability, and Rick Riordan, who originally wrote the Percy Jackson series to create a hero his own son, who has ADHD and dyslexia, would relate to.

It’s easy with ADHD and other learning disorders to feel reduced to a list of symptoms. This is where characters in stories really shine: they are multidimensional. They have both good traits and flaws—even the heroes. A story with an ADHD character shows strengths in addition to weaknesses and creates something much more human and whole.

Really, Riordan said it best:

“I thought about Haley’s struggle with ADHD and dyslexia. I imagined the faces of all the students I’d taught who had these same conditions. I felt the need to honor them, to let them know that being different wasn’t a bad thing. Intelligence wasn’t always measurable with a piece of paper and a number two pencil. Talent didn’t come in only one flavor.”

Representation is for All of Us

The benefits of representation aren’t just for those who finally get to see themselves included. For those outside the group gaining inclusion, representation also helps us build empathy, connection and a better understanding of those different from us. We gain perspective, experience and a more complex and accurate view of the world.

When it comes to ADHD, there’s a lot of baggage. People expect constant hyperactivity, assume only little boys to have it, or even think it’s fake. But ADHD is a lot more complex than this. It can manifest as “checking out” from what’s going on around you, hyperfocus, Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria, difficulty regulating emotions, and a myriad of other forms or combinations, depending on the person and the situation. The more we can show that it looks different in different people—different characters—the more we can bust apart stereotypes and see value and complexity in neurodiversity, rather than limitation.

There are many types of representation needed more in fiction, and this is just one type – certainly not trying to imply it’s any more important any others, and indeed some other representation needs feel especially urgent these days.

Regardless, representation enriches all of us.

I’ve slowly started being louder about my ADHD again (if you couldn’t tell), across all areas of my life, including what I write. My most recent novel even put an ADHD character front and center, and made it central to the plot, my own small effort toward adding to what’s needed, with hopefully more to come. And I have to tell you, it feels good not to be the quiet girl hiding in the back anymore.

***

About Departures:

She’s planned her celebration for weeks, and other than leaving her sister Gracelyn behind, she’s ready. The Directorate says this is how it should be, and she trusts them, as all its citizens do. So tonight she dresses up, she has a party, and she dances. Then she goes to sleep for the last time … except, the next morning, Evalee wakes up.

Gracelyn is a model Directorate citizen with a prodigious future ahead. If she could only stop thinking about the shuffling from Evalee’s room on her departure morning. Even wondering if something went wrong is treasonous enough to ruin her. If she pulls at the thread, the entire careful life the Directorate set for her could unravel into chaos.

Swept away by rebels, Evalee must navigate a future she didn’t count on in a new, untidy world. As the Directorate’s lies are stripped away, she becomes determined to break Gracelyn free from its grasp—before Gracelyn’s search for the truth proves her to be more unruly than she’s worth to the Directorate.

Buy Departures Now: Amazon

There’s only one Al MacBharrais: Though other Scotsmen may have dramatic mustaches and a taste for fancy cocktails, Al also has a unique talent. He’s a master of ink and sigil magic. In his gifted hands, paper and pen can work wondrous spells. 

\But Al isn’t quite alone: He is part of a global network of sigil agents who use their powers to protect the world from mischievous gods and strange monsters. So when a fellow agent disappears under sinister circumstances in Australia, Al leaves behind the cozy pubs and cafes of Glasgow and travels to the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria to solve the mystery.

The trail to his colleague begins to pile up with bodies at alarming speed, so Al is grateful his friends have come to help—especially Nadia, his accountant who moonlights as a pit fighter.

Together with a whisky-loving hobgoblin known as Buck Foi and the ancient Druid Atticus O’Sullivan, along with his dogs, Oberon and Starbuck, Al and Nadia will face down the wildest wonders Australia—and the supernatural world—can throw at them, and confront a legendary monster not seen in centuries.

It’s better in person

When researching a setting for a novel, Google Maps is nice in a pinch, but never better than actually being there. But if you’re writing during a pandemic, it’s super difficult to research any settings beyond your front doorstep. Especially if those settings are in Australia, which would be a honkin’ long (and miraculous) walk from Canada.

I had planned a trip to Australia in April of 2020 to make sure I could describe everything accurately in Paper & Blood, because there’s a different climate and ecosystem, independently evolved plant and animal life, and a charming accent to soak up. But air travel pretty much shut down at that time for reasons we all know, and my research trip got canceled like a gift subscription to Cauliflower Monthly.

Luckily, I was able to rely on the next best thing: Awesome Aussies helping me out. Two authors, Amie Kaufman and Nicole Hayes, were kind enough to take both still photos and videos of the areas I was interested in, and their literal legwork helped immensely.

Nicole did some driving around Glen Waverley for me, a neighbourhood outside of Melbourne, and that helped me with a crucial chapter involving wizard vans.

Amie took some friends on an actual hike in the bush for me, heading out to the Dandenong Ranges where the majority of the novel’s action takes place, and her videos were simply invaluable. I owe so many details of the area to her. She also walked through Fitzroy Gardens (in Melbourne) and up Clarendon Street for me, following the path Al and Buck take in Chapter 3.

Could I have written the book without those contributions, and relied on the Internet? Sure. But it wouldn’t have been the same book.

Always ask the locals how stuff works

Australians have organized themselves to meet the challenging (and frequent) dangers they face. The Victoria SES (State Emergency Service) is quite a bit different from emergency services I’m used to in the US and Canada: Here one usually calls 911 and the appropriate police, fire, or ambulance service gets dispatched, and if it’s anything medical in the US, yeah, you’re gonna be billed for it later. But the SES holds underneath its umbrella an association of volunteers who get trained to assist in certain roles, and they are called to local areas to help find missing hikers, or perhaps provide aid in the aftermath of a natural disaster like fires or floods. The SES, therefore, in all their orange-jumpsuited glory, would have been called in to help search for missing people in the bush of the Dandenong Ranges, along with uniformed police. I would not have known that (and therefore presented an unrealistic situation) if I hadn’t spoken with Amie about it.

Australian slang is fun as heck

In very general terms, you can shorten a noun, slap an o or a y on the end of it, and call it good. Thus football becomes “footy,” and a bottle shop (which is what they call liquor stores) is a “bottle-o.” My favorite, however, is “unco,” the shortened version of uncoordinated, usually used to describe someone (or one’s self) with low dexterity, as in “I’m too unco to hop on a skateboard without fear of death, mate.” I feel unco pretty much all the time, so I was delighted to find the perfect word for my daily existence.

Spelling doesnae matter in some cases

Scots slang continues to enchant me, and it has no settled orthography—in other words, however you decide to spell something, you’re not wrong. One of my favorite Scots words for a fight is “stooshie,” which can also be spelled “stushie” (or any other way that gets the phonetics across). It’s an adorably cute word for folks crunching fists into the teeth of other folks. But proper place names in Scotland do not necessarily follow the rule of spell-it-how-it-sounds-and-go-about-your-day. “Milngavie,” for example, is pronounced with just two syllables, like “mil-guy,” and absolutely no attention is paid to the n and the v in the middle there. For this reason, I included a pronunciation guide in an Author’s Note at the beginning of the book. It’s not required reading, but it might make the reading go a bit easier when I use terms or spellings that are outside standard usage.

I didn’t try to replicate Scots exhaustively because it might have been exhausting to read, but I wanted to use enough to get the flavor of the language across, and I owe heaping piles of thanks to Stu West for that, a Glaswegian who now lives in Canada.

A vastly entertaining side effect of becoming familiar with Scots language is that I’ve been really enjoying Scottish noir mysteries, because when Stuart MacBride writes “You look like someone left a jobbie in your corn flakes,” I know what he’s talking about.

Making good choices

This book was written from March to August of 2020, during a time when we were huddled in our homes and actually thought the pandemic might be over in a few weeks, which turned into a few months, and…haha, yeah, we’re still in it, because almost every time an elected leader had a chance to make a choice in the interest of public health, they made a choice in the interest of business or politics instead. It got me thinking about how the choices we make can have dire consequences, and we can run from them sometimes, but dang if they don’t catch up to us eventually. So Paper & Blood is full of people thinking about their past decisions and how they want to shape their future with new choices. One, in particular, is a figure last seen in The Iron Druid Chronicles. I don’t want to spoil anything, but how this figure tries to reinvent who they are by making new (perhaps better?) choices was one of the key delights in writing this book. And, by the way—you don’t have to have read the Iron Druid Chronicles, or even Ink & Sigil, to enjoy this book. There’s a handy recap of Ink & Sigil in the beginning, and everything else is pretty self-explanatory. So I hope you decided to give it a read and are happy with your choice.

***

Kevin Hearne is the New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Druid Chronicles, the Ink & Sigil series, the Seven Kennings trilogy, and co-author of the Tales of Pell with Delilah S. Dawson. He loves dogs, trees, and nature photography, and often quests for street tacos. When not writing novels, he writes snail mail with a fountain pen and plans road trips he can’t possibly take right now.

Kevin Hearne: Website | Twitter | Instagram

Paper & Blood: Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Chapters/Indigo | Amazon