ObBookAnnouncement: My standalone space opera Code and Codex releases in the USA on October 27 from Saga Press! Censorship and linguistics typology as magic system, bookbinding-inspired starships, and dysfunctional characters locked in a pseudo-incest death spiral. Chris Kluwe at Lightspeed Magazine has a review if you want an independent opinion. The Functional Nerds podcast featured me and this book recently: check it out and throw some support their way if you’re so inclined!

If you happen to be in Louisiana, the launch release will be New Orleans at the Garden District Book Shop, October 27, 6 p.m. I’ll also be showing up more locally in Baton Rouge at the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Library’s Main Branch on November 4, 5-7 p.m.

For logistical reasons, the UK edition releases in early 2027. Sorry y’all have to wait! I love both covers but they’re very different.

If you’re wondering what’s next on the book front, I’m on hiatus while I work on this composition/orchestration MFA (expected graduation is in 2028; I’m part-time for health reasons). That being said:

• I’m noodling at Ninefox: Crashhawks, a very military sf reboot for my own entertainment, feat. Lt. Liozh Jedao, outnumbered, OUTGUNNED hahahaha sorry, and one of four survivors in his regiment GOOD LUCK!!! My daughter, now wise to my ways, left this comment: “Jedao's not getting migraine medication for the next 5 chapters, is he.” I don’t know that this will ever be publishable. I might make it a text adventure, again for my own entertainment (more accurately, that of my family).

• My weekend project is a near-future technothriller, but it’s so early in the process that I don’t want to say more!

• I’ve been writing up notes on “sf/f novel structure for videogamers” and “sf/f military narrative structures and tropes,” but this is for (so to speak) internal use/reference rather than ~general release. I’m having fun with it, though!

On the Candle Arc front: continuing with animatic cleanup, which is inherently time-consuming. Enjoyable! but time-consuming. A sneak peek:

Catten likes to help!

Recent reading: I finally tracked down Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Osterkamp’s Strong Female Protagonist vol. 2! Terrific read; I knew the project halted going in, but it was still a treat: superhero deconstruction, gentle satire and savage moral dilemmas, extremely compassionately funny about earnest yet cursed efforts toward ~safe spaces. You can read the archives online! (I am catastrophically bad at remembering to read webcomics online since I compulsively close tabs and keep losing my place, so I prefer print.)

If you have questions or thoughts, I’m at [email protected] although I’m snowed under between schoolwork and book launch preparation so I may not be able to respond to everything. Take care of yourselves in the current timeline.

Please note: This newsletter is archived online. There’s no need to subscribe unless you really want to. Signed, someone who is stuck unsubscribing to newsletters every day for Reasons and hates the experience.

Yours in calendrical heresy,
YHL