Reality reshapes itself around stories. That’s a line from the beginning of HIGHER MAGIC, and it’s been looping through my head not just because I’m working through line edits right now but also because of the rise of fascism in the States and around the world.

The stories we take in and the stories we tell matter. They shape what we believe is normal, what we believe is possible, and what we believe endings should look like.

For many of us, the pages of books may be the first place we find kinship and recognition. The first indication that a different kind of life is possible. The place where we discover that we aren’t alone. That we’re loveable. That we are worthy of care. That we’re allowed to make mistakes. That we deserve to exist, and more than exist––to thrive.

We already live in a world where bigots do their best to stop those stories from existing, because they want to stop us from existing. In days to come, that censorship will likely increase. Fascism and bigotry thrive in places where a single story has been made to erase all others.

We cannot allow that to happen.

Reality reshapes itself around stories. Stories shape reality. And I am determined to keep telling disabled- and queer-norm stories with diverse casts who learn how to take care of themselves and each other no matter how hard and messy the process. Because if nothing else, I can do my damndest to normalize that. To stamp these words into the void:

We exist. We exist. We exist TOGETHER.

There’s work to be done, the stakes are high, lives are at risk, and I know you’re tired––I’m tired, too. Tired and furious and grieving. But I read a lot, so I know that this is the moment where we stick together. We keep pushing, and we help each other through. We are an ensemble, reassembling, and together we can resist encroaching rot.

I believe in us.

November Recommendations

• Read Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. (I first read this in 2016, and it’s only gotten more relevant.)

• And P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout (because fuck white supremacy).

• And Charlie Jane Anders’s Never Say You Can’t Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories (especially if you’re a writer or creative).

• Bid on cool bookish things in support of Trans Lifeline.

• Get Haymarket Book’s Ten Free eBooks for Getting Free.

• Get involved with Authors Against Book Bans.

• Keep masking in public spaces. Even if you aren’t worried for your own health, masking is one of the easiest forms of solidarity and care you can give your community. Start again if you stopped. Don’t fucking waffle about it, y’all. Our liberation is intersectional and rooted in interdependence.

  • Bonafide Masks is a good place to get N95 and KN95s.

  • Read Mia Mingus’s “You Are Not Entitled To Our Deaths: COVID, Abled Supremacy & Interdependence.”

• Share your story, even with just one person you trust. The more I’ve done that (despite my very neurodivergent and Scorpio tendency to be super private), the more I’ve opened myself up to connecting with someone else who’s shared part of my path. It’s incredibly healing.

Thank you for wallowing with me,

~Courtney

P.S. So much has happened on the book front in the past month. I saw an early version of my cover! And helped edit the cover copy! My story about higher ed, first-gen anxiety, neurodivergent and disabled found family, and collective action in the face of institutional ableism is actually going to be a real book and it’s coming out next October AHHHHHHHhhhhHHHH.