Hi there, fellow wallowers!

I’ve been in my vague era for a minute, now. Not long, really, in the grand scheme of publishing — the only industry I’ve found that is capable of moving slower than academia does. But it’s felt like an interminable yawp of time, and I spent it pacing anxiously (figuratively and literally) because otherwise I would have burst.

Why, you ask? Well (just in case you skipped over the subject line):

I sold my debut novel!

It happened earlier this year, and today I finally get to tell you about it. The timing is perfect, actually, because it’s disability pride month, and my novel is at its core a love letter to disabled and neurodivergent academics — especially those like me who slogged through their programs without being able to name that about themselves, yet.

HIGHER MAGIC follows first-generation mage student, Dorothe Bartleby, as she faces down her second and final attempt to pass her program’s qualifying exams while juggling her own teaching responsibilities. When she realizes her students are disappearing, she must rally her friends, her sentient exam spell, & her cute classmate to set things right. All while dealing with extreme anxiety and a childhood prophecy that won’t leave her be.

This is the mood board I made for it, way back when I was still querying:

It’s still so wild to think this will be out in the world in about a year! Stay tuned here to be the first to know about the cover reveal, pre-orders, and more!

Other Updates

• At the start of July, I sold my short story, “Music, Murder, Murmuration,” about a siren who gets kicked out of the family band because she can’t harmonize and the steps she takes to find harmony, to Haven Spec Magazine. It should be out this November!

• I’ll be on the programming at Glasgow WorldCon next month. More details to come about that!

• Episodes of my cozy horror audio drama, The Way We Haunt Now, are currently dropping every other Saturday. We’re halfway through the third and final season, and we just hit a milestone number of listens. If you’ve listened to the show, even for just one or two episodes, thank you so much for your support! If you haven’t, can I interest you in a story about death that’s been called life-affirming, tender, and yet still pretty scary???

July Recommendations

In honor of disability pride, I want to share some of my very favorite media

Novels

• Sylvie Cathrall’s A Letter to the Luminous Deep stole my heart, in part because of it’s anxious main character who has OCD.

• Leanne Schwartz’s My Kind of Trouble, which I’ve talked about here before, is an adorable, heartwarming romcom featuring a conwoman on a quest for vengeance and the handsome autistic librarian who stands in her way. Coming October!

• Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series features a heroine who definitely reads neurodivergent, though she’s in a time period where there was no name for that yet.

• And if you like your representation with a little bit (a lot) of body horror: Caitlin Starling’s The Death of Jane Lawrence is fantastic.

Short Stories

I don’t read as much short fiction as I should or want to (I’m trying, y’all), but here are two of my faves — both featuring magic schools.

• Fran Wilde’s “Choose Wisely” is an older short story, but it’s stuck with me since I read it. From a faculty perspective!

• John Wiswell’s “D.I.Y.” about a magic school, and not attending it, and everything that happens after.

Non-Fiction & Podcasts

• Elsa Sjunneson’s Being Seen: One Deaf-Blind Woman’s Fight to End Ableism is part memoir, part critical media analysis. If you want to write disability-inclusive worlds, this is a must read!

• Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice taught me so much about what disability intimacy and disabled found family might mean. And it’s decentering of whiteness is so very necessary in broader disability discourse. There’s a wonderful audiobook version, as well.

• Mia Mingus’s blog, Leaving Evidence, is full of poignant, thought-provoking, vital essays that I return to again and again in both my day job and my creative life.

• And Alice Wong’s Disability Visibility podcast (and books) should be at the top of the list for anyone who wants to learn more about the landscape of disability in the US. I will never, ever forget listening to an episode on the ADA and hearing Alice say “Access is something that we all should have a responsibility for. And access is something that we all have capacity, in some way or another, to give to one another.”

TV

• Geek Girl. It’s lovely and offered a kind of representation I didn't even know I was desperate for. Self-diagnosed and late-diagnosed girlies (gender inclusive), this is for you.

Music

I was recently listening to The Beths Expert in a Dying Field album on repeat for like the third day running when I realized why I was vibing with it so hard: it is quite possibly the single most neurodivergent album I’ve ever listened to. I feel so understood by every single song.

Anyway, here’s one of my favorites:

Whew, this was a long one. Thank you for wallowing with me!

Courtney