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An advance reader copy of "Jane Austen's Bookshelf" sits on a mat with a brown mug in the background.

Currently reading some very interesting non-fiction! However, reading this book is making my TBR longer, not shorter... @rebeccaromney.com you're not only making my TBR longer, but also making me want beautifully-bound editions of books I haven't seen even paperbacks of in regular bookstores!

Hi.

I'm nonbinary.

Most of the time I look like a dude. A large, tall dude, at that.

But I am still nonbinary.

How you arbitrarily think someone looks does not equate to their pronouns. There is no wrong way to be nonbinary, and certainly no edict for androgyny.

A photo of part of the letters page of today's Guardian, with the heading "Why fantasy fiction doesn't need reclaiming for women" including (most of) one from me and one from Yvonne Williams. Mine reads: I was disappointed to read your view on romantasy fiction (Editorial, 7 February), which seemed to imply that the fantasy genre needed reclaiming for women. This does a huge disservice to the many excellent female fantasy authors – some recent, some around for decades – who have been a mainstay of the genre despite not writing romance or teen fiction. These women do not seem to get the recognition, and readership, that they deserve – despite some, such as NK Jemisin, Ann Leckie, Charlie Jane Anders, RF Kuang or Martha Wells, dominating genre awards. These authors also have to fight the continual misperception that they only write romantic or young adult fiction, which is exactly the fantasy that your article perpetuates. And this also erases all the female fantasy readers who are not (solely) here for the romantasy, and have always been here. While I am glad that romantasy has sparked more interest in fantasy fiction, made the genre more inclusive, and made fantasy publishing more lucrative (though usually for the publishers rather than most authors), perpetuating the myth that the (non-romance) genre is only for boys – and that romance is only for girls – is unfair. Sorry to have to mansplain this to you, but from what I’ve seen the writers themselves are too tired and appalled at having to continually wage the battle of the sexes to take up arms once more. Dragons are easier to defeat, it seems. James Latimer Swindon, Wiltshire

I'm in print!

You might have missed it, but Amazon warehouse workers in Raleigh, NC are voting this week on whether to form a union.

If they win, they'll be the first unionized Amazon facility in the South.

Remember that we can always find hope in the labor movement.

A Storygraph reading wrap up for January, featuring The Maid and the Crocodile by J Ifueko, and The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by A Goodman.

My Storygraph wrap up for January! Loved The Maid and The Crocodile by J Ifueko (though probably it would've been better to read the Raybearer duo first...)

This Black History Month, as our communities battle attempts to whitewash history, use us as scapegoats, and undo our civil rights, we must show up louder than ever before.

Let us celebrate the Black LGBTQ+ leaders who came before us and let their legacy guide us.

These are unprecedented times, but I wish they could be unpresidented times ✨

Oppose, Oppose, Oppose — and Do It Loudly Opponents of MAGA: Don’t despair and don’t appease

Oppose, Oppose, Oppose — and Do It Loudly
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

We'll be honest with you. Recent news & the state of the world scares us. Developing Kinder World is a way that we try to help others with small moments of comfort and grounding in their day. While it might look like 'just a cute mobile game' to some, this is a form of activism-

If you’re in an institution doing any kind of DEI work, the most important thing to do right now is simply call it something else. Change it to “Community Outreach” & then keep on doing the same important work. When they outlaw Community Outreach rebrand it as “Strategic Partnerships,” rinse/repeat.

A reminder - don't use Amazon, but go to bookshops, which play a far more vital role in promoting literacy just by simply making books more visible, and allow you to find things by chance rather than by what the algorithm decides.

I often go back to The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery.

A yellow and orange sunset, with trees silhouetted against it.

January has been rough so far, but here's a pretty sunset.

Free Class: Barriers to Writing | Mary Robinette Kowal Get more from Mary Robinette Kowal on Patreon

Hey there... are you having a hard time writing right now? There's a lot of that right now. Weird, right?

So I'd like to offer you my Barriers to Writing class for free. This is about all the non-writing things that get between you and writing.

www.patreon.com/posts/free-c...

A screenshot of a tweet by Matthew Chapman that reads: "Under Trump's executive order, every single person in America is now legally classified as female. All embryos begin by developing female sex organs, with male sex organs only replacing them at around 6 weeks of gestation." Below the tweet is a section of a document labeled "The White House," defining "female" and "male" based on reproductive cells and critiquing "gender ideology."

Who run the world?

Today's art: a doodle for my new profile! Gotta keep creating in this chaos.

The Emilie Adventures: Emilie and the Hollow World and Emilie and the Sky World. The cover is steampunk-ish, with inset round images of an airship, a steam-powered boat, a fae-looking queen, and Emilie.

Queen Demon, showing Kai dressed in dark teal and purple and gold, with a veil, jumping downward, coat flowing behind him.

Hello new people. I have two books coming out this year from @tordotcom.bsky.social: The Emilie Adventures, a revised compilation of the two Emilie which have been out of print for awhile (art by Colin Verdi), in May, and Queen Demon, the sequel to Witch King, (art by Cynthia Sheppard) in October.