live from the forest, it's e.m. anderson! - august is the sunday of summer

Izzy Hawthorne: Destiny Awaits,

                August 29, 2022

            live from the forest, it's e.m. anderson! - august is the sunday of summer

            anti-monopsony court cases & shitty business decisions, oh my!
welp. august has been an awfully long month here in the publishing industry. I won't despair bore you with absolutely everything, but the tl;dr of the two biggest frustrations is this:
the DOJ's anti-merger case against Penguin Random House/Simon & Schuster has been going on, with the defense's main arguments being (a) they're incompetent assholes who literally have no idea how they're so successful in this industry and/or (b) based on misinformation, misleading information, or flat-out lies. here's a collection of articles from Publishers Weekly if you want to know more.
thanks to a twitter thread by author Bethany Baptiste (Izzy Hawthorne: Destiny Awaits, Disney-Hyperion 2022; The Poisons We Drink, Sourcebooks 2024), people learned about a Barnes & Noble policy limiting the number of hardcovers stores are allowed to stock, disproportionately impacting marginalized and midlist authors. here's an article from NBC if you want to know more.
basically, for publishing, august has been a whole trashfire, and it's feeling like a really great time to be a debut author.
book things
the remarkable retirement of edna fisher
a cover-like thing recently appeared in my inbox, and it's giving me classical fantasy adventure vibes with a twist!
do I know when we'll reveal it? no.
but there'll be an exclusive advance reveal for subscribers to my newsletter! so, y'know. if you have friends who might be interested in the book, tell them to subscribe.
add edna on goodreads or storygraph today. preorder her in hardcover or paperback. more buy links to come!
the many buried things of peter shaughnessy
I continue to feel bizarrely like my last round of querying didn't prepare me for this one. how have I sent so many freaking queries already? how have I heard back from so many people? one agent said they were clearing out their inbox and would likely get back to me quickly, and it was like what do you mean, quickly? no!!! don't!!! you gotta sit on it for a year and then reject me!!! that's what I'm used to!!!
anyway, I also ordered personal print copies this month. and hello, she is PRETTY.
cover mockup for The Many Buried Things of Peter Shaughnessy, with original art of flowers growing out of a human heart
(this is probably my best cover mockup to date, not least because I did the art myself!)
bonus, I sent my youngest sister a copy for her birthday and was treated to live text updates of her reactions, followed by an hour-long phone call in which she proceeded to yell at me about the book.
so basically, I've peaked as a writer.
writing & whatnot
might have a new wip? a week ago it was nothing but vibes. now there's a main character, and a (probable) love interest, and a general plot, and an antagonist, and a setting, and more vibes.
I'm not saying much about it for a while, because so far it feels like this.
He had kept this tune under his hat for several days but hadn’t quite dared to take it out yet. It had to grow into a kind of happy conviction. Then, he would simply have to put his lips to the mouth organ, and all the notes would jump instantly into their places.
If he released them too soon they might get stuck crossways and make only a half-good tune, or he might lose them altogether and never be in the right mood to get hold of them again. Tunes are serious things, especially if they have to be jolly and sad at the same time.
"The Spring Tune," Tales from Moominvalley (Tove Jansson, 1973)
can't risk startling it and scaring it off! but I'm vibing with it very much.
short stories
reminder that I have some short stories you can read while you wait for edna!
“something witchy this way comes,“ in SJ Whitby’s Awakenings: A Cute Mutants Anthology, available through bookdepository, indiebound, barnes & noble, and amazon. sales benefit Rainbow Railroad.
“the raising of hester macrae,” in Dark Horses Magazine, Issue 4, available through amazon, barnes & noble, and apple books.
and keep an eye out for GutSlut Press’s anthology Suicidaliens, which will feature my story about a girl, a secret, and vaguely monstrous mermaids!
obligatory new york pictures
good news! we're done with the central park zoo. today we are looking at...random famous sites I passed by but did not actually go into for one reason or another.
(most of those reasons being either not enough money or not enough time. but still! I saw them! how cool!)
macy's. as in, THE macy's. as in, miracle on 34th street macy's.
times square. which technically I did walk through on two separate occasions, but. that's about it.
sesame street! which alas I do not think I walked on. but still! I saw it! I found the intersection (by accident)!
the met, which honestly is so pretty from the outside that I don't feel too much like I missed out on not making it inside on this trip. next time! if I ever have enough money to go back lmao.
rockefeller center, which I mostly didn't go into because it was closed. because we passed by very late. but dang if it isn't pretty all lit up like that.
nbc studios and the sign for the rainbow room observation deck.
radio city music hall! we sort of accidentally ended up on a strip of famous sites on our way back from dinner because we left by a different subway than we came by, and radio city music hall was the one I was most excited to accidentally see.
and from highline park, I saw the statue of liberty at a distance! there's a statue in the park inspired by lady liberty, and the plaque tells you how to spot the original from the park. so there she is! very tiny and distant and gray, but majestic. and I did see her, if only from a distance.

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