Wallowing in Ink with Courtney Floyd • Issue 34
In which I start a coven; share some new Higher Magic blurbs; and tell you the best things I read, watched, and listened to this month.
Hi, hello! I’m Courtney. You’re probably here because of that spell I just cast. Or maybe it’s because you heard about my debut fantasy novel or my cozy horror audio drama series and wanted to learn what else I’m up to. Whatever the case, I’m glad you’re reading.
This month I started a coven.
A duck coven. Meet Hecate, Penumbra, and Elvira, my delightfully spooky Black Runner ducklings.
Ducks are some of my favorite animals, they’re deeply social and incredibly sweet and watching them splash and swim is joy, full stop.
Here they are enjoying their first swim!
Don’t worry, they were thoroughly towel-dried after (ducks don’t develop their waterproofing until their adult feathers come in)!
Aside from yard- and waterfowl antics (I’ll tell you about the new chicks and keets another time), I have been hard at work on my horror novella rewrite for what feels like an eternity but, to my surprise, has only been about two months. I’ve also been scribbling notes and plot ideas for a secret project. It’s been simmering in the back of my mind for a couple of years now, and I’m so excited that it’s staring to cohere into something that feels compelling.
But it’s going to have to simmer a bit longer, because after the novella I have a novel to rewrite and another to draft more of and maybe a dusty old trunked first-draft of a thing to consider turning into an audio drama script when I’ve got a quiet moment.
Both of the novel projects are set in the nineteenth-century, so it’s safe to say that whatever I work on next, I’m going to have a Very Victorian Summer.
New Blurbs for Higher Magic
I’ve never fully understood happy crying until publishing made me do it.
When I saw my first cover concept, I was a weepy mess. And, more recently, when these blurbs rolled into my inbox? I burst into spontaneous tears and confused the crap out of my spouse.
“Higher Magic is enchanting, affirming, and an astonishingly realistic representation of my own experience in grad school (which is a delightful thing to say about a book that also features a most loquacious narration skull). Courtney Floyd’s intelligent, inclusive novel captures the challenges of navigating academia as a disabled person...while ultimately celebrating the bravery of living and learning in spite of an oppressive system.”
— Sylvie Cathrall, author of A Letter to the Luminous Deep
“A brilliant celebration of friendship, education, and refusal to surrender in the face of injustice, all set in a magical university that anyone who has ever battled through the joys and torments of postgraduate study will find hauntingly familiar. Witty, compassionate, and fiercely intelligent.”
— H.G. Parry, author of The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door
It is baffling and wonderful that authors whose work I’ve admired and loved, sometimes for years, have taken the time to read my novel and say nice things about it. I am so very humbled and grateful.
April Recs
Read
This one isn’t out until September, but if you’re anything like me you’ll want to pre-order Lessons in Magic and Disaster or request it at your library ASAP. It follows a grad student who is trying to finish her dissertation and nudge her mom back into living after the death of her other mom. She does this, as you may have guessed from the title, by teaching her mom to do magic. Things do not go according to plan.
I loved this novel so, so much. From the snapshots of the main character’s research and teaching life to the complex and varied exploration of queer histories, to the poignant navigation of relationships and desire and magic. As someone who has a PhD in lit and still regularly nerds out about the history of the novel, the author’s note was perfection. And now I have some real live 18th century women writers to follow up on!
Watch
Sinners is getting all the hype for a reason, y’all. I was blown away. It’s the best movie I’ve seen in a long time, and the things they did thematically are brilliant and powerful. Go see it if you can!
Listen
No Write Way is one of my favorite writing podcasts. This season, I especially enjoyed the Chuck Tingle and Jenny Lawson episodes! If you go back to season two, there’s an interview with R.L. Stine that was fantastic, too!
Thank you for wallowing with me,
Courtney