Elias Eells- Bar Cart Bookshelf

The cover of CALL AND RESPONSE: STORIES OF THE FANTASTIC by Christopher Caldwell against a jovial marbled backdrop.

Recently, I had the immense pleasure to read an early copy of CALL AND RESPONSE by Christopher Caldwell, the newest collection from Neon Hemlock, and I absolutely adored it!! Ten stories in matched pairs, structural brilliance for a thrilling, magical, and deeply humane, this is a MUST READ!!

Gorgeous goopy gworls!!

The omnibus is the dream, sure, but let us not steer away from the pleasures that are silly-goofy-earnest

Editors and readers, love him enough that I can one day put out a collection called "The Coming of the Peacock Wizard" that's just his horniest gay boy adventures. That would be so fun and cool and groovy!

Poster for the Louisville Book Festival on Saturday October 11, 2025, from 10AM to 5PM at the Kentucky International Convention Center.

TOMORROW!! Join me at the Louisville Book Festival from 10AM-5PM. We'll have 150 authors signing books, hosting panels, & sharing fun activities, including a mocktail demonstration & tasting from yours truly. Plus a keynote address by Mychal Threets, the new host of Reading Rainbow! See ya'll there!

Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell (pre-order) — neon hemlock A collection of short stories. Publication date: October 14th, 2025. An 8” x 5” paperback. 188 pages. This is a pre-order—any other books ordered with it will ship when the pre-order is ready to ship....

Make sure you're subscribed to the @neonhemlock.bsky.social newsletter so you can catch my interview with @seraph76.bsky.social about the collection!

And order your copy here:

www.neonhemlock.com/books/call-a...

Personal favorites included "Serving Fish", "Deep Like the Rivers", and "Canst Thou Draw Out the Leviathan", but it really is all hits, no skips. Absolutely magical from start to finish.

I had read one of the 'response' stories earlier this year in NEW SUNS 2 (available from @solarisbooks) and it was exactly the right kind of frisson to read the 'call' story, that edge of awareness and familiarity, really effective as a pair!

The stories are arranged in two halves, the titular 'call' and 'response', where stories in the first half have echoed loose sequels in the second. Rings within rings, melodies and their counterpoints or descants, drawing deeper into unknown worlds and reflections of our own.

The cover of CALL AND RESPONSE: STORIES OF THE FANTASTIC by Christopher Caldwell against a jovial marbled backdrop.

Recently, I had the immense pleasure to read an early copy of CALL AND RESPONSE by Christopher Caldwell, the newest collection from Neon Hemlock, and I absolutely adored it!! Ten stories in matched pairs, structural brilliance for a thrilling, magical, and deeply humane, this is a MUST READ!!

It’s an easy giveaway to enter and the odds are super good!!

That’s alright. I think there’s a pretty clear divide between some m/f fiction and work that is culturally straight. Fiddly distinctions sometimes!

I think money talks and spending money on books like Alchemised speaks incredibly poorly of the buyer, especially when they’re Online enough to be aware. There’s great work of all sorts, but I’m talking theist cynical midrange big budget slop here.

People on r/fantasy keep asking “Why is modern fantasy all so UNORIGINAL and BORING,” and I immediately assume they must not be reading, say, N.K. Jemisin or Vajra Chandrasekera or Simon Jimenez or Premee Mohamed or anything published by Neon Hemlock, and frankly that sounds like a them problem.

It always feels extra weird when queer bookstagrammers and booktokkers are going absolutely gaga for super straight stuff. Like 1) whyyyyyyyy and 2) how can this be the sort of material you find titillating??

A hardcover copy of THE WITCH ROADS by Kate Elliott alongside a pinkish-orange blush colored drink in a stemmed glass. Book and drink are on a rough limestone slab.

NEW VIDEO ALERT! Today on Bar Cart Bookshelf, we're talking about THE WITCH ROADS by Kate Elliott. A fabulous fantasy of montane hiking, mysterious spirits, & sinister conspiracies, the first book in a propulsive duology, showing a master at the height of skill. Our drink is the Deputy Courier.

always reblob

Joe Keenan's BLUE HEAVEN, my beloved

After the third constitutional convention, fixing publishing is going to come right after taxing churches and breaking the car dealerships.

periodic reminder that if you write stuff that's published on the web for a publication you yourself do not own, PDF that shit as soon as it goes live

Joe Keenan's BLUE HEAVEN, my beloved

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.

YES!! That's the coolest room. I am OBSESSED..

The Art Institute is 🔥, but I do have a special place in my heart for the terrorist lions at the Field. I haven't toured the ISAC yet and I really want to get back up there to check it out!

LRT, and still, the easiest way to get me to read something is for it to already be in my house.

Say the line, Bart! three panel meme but it’s SAY THE LINE, ZACH and then then I HAVE A COPY OF THAT BUT HAVEN’T GOTTEN AROUND TO READING IT YET and then the cheering

why do we still like Ray Bradbury? Greetings, fellow undercover artists embedded in the apocalypse! It's a funny business, connecting with other covert operatives across time and space. Tracking what holds true and what changes. What ...

I wasn't surprised that my post about not loving the Golden Age sci-fi writers got a lot of... engagement. 😅

What *did* surprise me was that when I casually mentioned that Ray Bradbury was the lone exception, a ton of great writers chimed in to echo that sentiment.

So I dug deeper into why.

1/2

Okay, this is wonderful!!

Everything should be remote work, but if not remote, Chicago is THEE superior American metropolis. Second to none!!

On shelves now!!