on devising pleasures
i’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a story into a story. what turns a series of sequential events—boring! random!—into a narrative, which is so un-...
the 3rd annual alix e. harrow gift guide
this should have been a very easy newsletter to write. last year's took like, an hour! but i've never met a project i couldn't over-complicate, and what...
on the history of starling house
news starling house—my third novel—is out now. it’s sort of a southern gothic beauty and the beast, and you can find it wherever books are sold.1 signed...
on old songs
i said recently that i only send out newsletters when i've accidentally had too many emotions about a piece of art, and i'm sorry to report that i just came...
on (re)learning how to read
my only resolution this year was to keep a reading journal again. i started my first one because my college literature professor said everyone should keep a...
the 2nd annual alix e. harrow gift guide
i think the thing i miss most about twitter—and there is, god help me, a long list of things i miss about twitter1—is the illusion of chill it afforded me....
on bodies
there are two kinds of writers in the world. (anyone who starts a sentence with "there are two kinds of ___ in the world" is without exception a bullshitter;...
on time travel
august is almost over, which means i’m insufferable: maudlin and nostalgic, mournful, sentimental, tearful, wistful. the whole month is one long sunday...
on spindles and mirrors
my second novella—A Mirror Mended, the equally unpronounceable sequel to A Spindle Splintered, and the end of the duology—came out yesterday. it has a...
on silence
the thing about ideas is that i don't have very many of them. people don't believe me when i say that. they laugh, the way you do when someone is pretending...
on resolve
i haven't sent out a newsletter since january of this year, which feels like it happened a decade ago and also yesterday. i thought about resolving, in a new...
on that pop
news the once and future witches has been out for about three months and it’s in its fifth (5th) printing, which--for a second standalone novel at the height...
on second books
news my second novel, The Once and Future Witches, is out today in the US (and Thursday in the UK)! buy it wherever books are sold, but maybe especially from...
on showing and telling
of showing and telling due to the unignorable power of two trustworthy people recommending the same book within a week (eternal thanks to amal el-mohtar and...
on "just" whiteness
news two cool things are happening right now: the ten thousand doors of January is a kindle daily deal today! $3.99! also there’s a goodreads giveaway for...
on angst
news because my publicist, Ellen Wright, is an unstoppable force of creativity and adaptivity, i get to do a virtual tour for the paperback release of The...
on rereads
my husband doesn’t re-read books or re-watch movies, as a rule. and yet he married me, a person who could happily sit down to watch The Last Jedi at...
on snakes and tails
the best part of Knives Out (there are many best parts of Knives Out; it is a movie comprised exclusively of best-parts glued together with a southern drawl...
on romance
recently i’ve been reading two things i’ve never read before: romance and fanfiction. i’d like to think it wasn’t sheer snottiness that kept me away, but it...
of heroes
as anyone who follows me on twitter knows, i have a near-obsession with Madeline Miller’s Circe and Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer books. there are a...
on starless seas
news the news section is moved to the top because my book (my book, the book that I wrote, my book) is out today. that feels momentous. or at least it feels...
of murderbots and time wars
in the last month i’ve read martha wells’ Murderbot Diaries (consisting of four separate novellas: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol,...
welcome to the written world!
a monthly-ish email reflecting on something i’ve read or seen and what makes it so great, + self-promotion.