If you're excited for my Fantasy Romans book, there's another merch reveal today on Kickstarter -- PLUS an exclusive excerpt from the book, featuring the scribe of an ancient manuscript, Gaius Talius, having a Very Bad Day. www.kickstarter.com/projects/ale... 🪐📚🩵 #queerbooks #queeradultsff
I cannot actually put into words how much I loathe having to deal with US taxes despite having lived in Canada for the last decade
So March was...actually bonkers at work, so I didn't read as much as I wanted to. But what I did read was EXCELLENT:
this is TONIGHT!
there's a debate on threads about trigger warnings I absolutely should not respond to. so I'll just say here: if you don't think trigger warnings in books have and will be used to ban books, largely by marginalised authors, I have a river to sell you
The staggeringly fabulous cover for CE Murphy's BONE & BLOOD, a retelling of "Snow White, Rose Red" features two women standing back to back: one is garbed all in blood red, with dark red hair and a black mask; the other wears flowing white, with wheat-pale hair and a glittering mask. Cover art & design by Ravven.
#Booksky! Today is RELEASE DAY for BONE & BLOOD!
There is a story of a widow & her two daughters, Snow White and Rose Red, the most perfect & darling little girls who had ever lived.
This is not—quite—that story.
I'm so proud of this one, guys! Please RT! :)
www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXFPLQW...
For fun, it's Winter's Tale and Much Ado. Academically...yeah, it's gotta be Titus Andronicus.
I'd say he read Don Quixote at a formative age, but...no, no he didn't.
Doesn't seem to have stopped him tilting at windmills though.
The gorgeous new stained-glass-styled covers for BABA YAGA'S DAUGHTER, YEAR OF MIRACLES, and KISS OF ANGELS are done in purpley-blue, orangey-red, and greeny-uh, green, respectively, with Baba Yaga's hut, a stylized flame, and an ouroboros as the central image. Respectively.
The Old Races short story collections are back!
BABA YAGA'S DAUGHTER, YEAR OF MIRACLES, and KISS OF ANGELS are available again at Amazon with stunning new cover art from Fakel Barros Studio!
Print editions coming real soon now. :D
www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ9TRG2...
February was a decent month for reading:
The staggeringly fabulous cover for CE Murphy's upcoming BONE & BLOOD, a retelling of "Snow White, Rose Red" features two women standing back to back: one is garbed all in blood red, with dark red hair and a black mask; the other wears flowing white, with wheat-pale hair and a glittering mask. Cover art & design by Ravven. Preorder at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXFPLQWY/?tag=mizkit-20 The next image is a parchment-colored paper with golden roses along one side, and the first part of the text reads: There is a story of a widow woman and her two daughters, Snow White and Rose Red, who were the most perfect and darling little girls who had ever lived. This is not—quite—that story. In time, people will lose their fear of the forests, but this is not yet that time; this is not yet that place. Not with the enchanted Beast at its heart still living there; not with that heart being the forest itself, embodied, living, aware. But not aware enough for old Widow Adele, who is only called old because she is a widow, and who is only a widow because something had to be done about her husband. The living forest did nothing, but the forest had a sister, white-haired and jewel-eyed, who lived in the village, and who was known to be a witch. The witch was wedded to Lucinda, a good girl, and so when the Widow Adele could bear her husband no longer, she spoke to Lucy, and in a little while the witch, called Pearl, came to visit. He would forbid the witch's presence in their home; he would forbid anyone's presence, though better to have visitors than let Adele go into the village. Within the shadows of their dark little cottage, bruises could not easily be seen, and broken bones could be blamed on uneven floors or a clumsy woman leaving the broom where she oughtn't.
A page of teaser text, framed by golden roses. The remainder of the text, which begins on the previous image, reads: But a witch could see what a man might not. Even in the dim light that shone through the cottage's shuttered windows, the witch's eyes glittered dangerous green and her flawless mouth curved a faultless, merciless smile. "You have no children," Pearl said. Hope fired in Adele's heart, burning her hollow as she nodded, and the fire did not bank when regret twisted Pearl's lips. "I'm sorry. A child is beyond my power. But a tea to increase your husband's vigor is within it." Adele stared, bleak and aching. "He doesn't lack vigor, lady." "No," Pearl replied, gently now, and gentleness from her icy pale gaze was like a knife cutting deep, leaving no mark. "No, I can see he doesn't. But the tea will increase it to apoplexy." She passed her hand across the rough-cut kitchen table, leaving a packet behind. "It tastes of blackberry, and needs a few drops of honey to sweeten it enough for him to drink it all at once. It will be most potent for the next few days, so I wouldn't waste any time." She rose, all languid grace, and her crossing of the threshold was like the moon's light fading, leaving Adele in darkness. Adele jerked to her feet, the packet clutched against her chest as she bolted for the door and cried, "Witch!" The witch turned back, white eyebrows lifted, and Adele faltered apologetically. "Pearl." The name was hardly a whisper, the only kind of forgiveness she dared ask for. Pearl waited, and Adele gathered her courage. "The tea. Is it magic?" "No, my dear," Pearl said, still gently. "It's poison."
BONE & BLOOD, my latest retold fairy tale, will be available in just a few weeks! Preorder at www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXFPLQW...
The alt text for the teaser text image is spread across both images bc it was too long for just one. Sorry about that! <3 #booksky #preorders #fantasy #romance #FairyTales
K...So apparently I crashed for 11 1/2 hours because somebody was wafting weed smoke into the hallway of the NON-SMOKING BUILIDNG I live in.
Allergic reactions are the worst. My entire evening got derailed.
Canadians, here's a petition for you to sign.
Read it. Then scroll down to the MP who is backing it.
And then, once you stop laughing, gleefully sign it.
Ok Bridgerfam, let's all just take a step back and a breath on the whole "she was only wearing a mask, how can Benedict not recognize Sophie!?!?!?!" pearl clutching. In both the animated and live action Disney Cinderellas, her wholeass face was out. There was no mask. And we still had to look at every woman's foot in the entire kingdom. Accept the premise and let the story do its thing.
Its...its literally the bit that MAKES it a Cinderella story...did you not WANT that!?!?!?
All hail Audrey's Books. Thanks to them, I have hard copies of No Dominion and the Old Races Trilogy incoming!!!!
This image shows gauges with the Jan 31 - Feb 13, 2026 COVID Forecast scores for Canada, the provinces, and territories. From left to right: Canada: VERY HIGH - 13.1 Alberta: SEVERE - 18.6 British Columbia: HIGH - 6.3 Manitoba: SEVERE - 18.4 New Brunswick: SEVERE - 19.2 Newfoundland & Labrador: HIGH - 7.7 North: VERY HIGH - 13.9 Nova Scotia: VERY HIGH - 10.4 Ontario: VERY HIGH - 14.5 Prince Edward Island: SEVERE - 18.9 Quebec: VERY HIGH - 10.0 Saskatchewan: SEVERE - 18.7 A text box reads: 'The COVID Forecast is calculated from 3 equally weighted categories: 1) Current infections and spread; 2) Healthcare system impact; 3) Mortality. Within each category there is one sub-category for trends over the most recent week (Trends) and one sub-category for current parameter values relative to a specified baseline (Current values). Trends and current values are weighted equally when determining the final score for a category. All Forecast input data and sources are available here (https://datastudio.google.com/embed/u/0/reporting/42b886cf-d661-488e-b7d8-5c5836b55ab6/page/p_2yqs028mwc). Past Forecast scores are available in the table below. Forecast scores are grouped into 4 ranges: MODERATE (1 to <5, white), HIGH (6 to <10, yellow), VERY HIGH (10 to <15, orange), SEVERE (>15 red).'
Canadian COVID Forecast: Jan 31 - Feb 13, 2026
SEVERE: AB, MB, NB, PEI, SK
VERY HIGH: CAN, North, NS, ON, QC
HIGH: BC, NL
MODERATE: none
About 1 in 122 people in Canada are CURRENTLY infected.
He IS a horse! It's a shapeshifter romance, and he's a former grifter who CPS hands a niece to and he basically turns his entire life around to raise this kid and meets a lifelong horse girl along the way. And we DO need to talk books more!
I was remiss in my duties! But he's only a horse SOMETIMES...
So uhh...January was apparently a real good month for reading for me:
Happy Dances in upcoming print editions!!!@
Ok, so I've decided that my favorite scene of the first three episodes of Bridgerton Season 4 is the one where Violet fully just melts down and more or less terror-screams, "MY INTENTION IS TO CLIMB YOU LIKE A TREE BUT I'M NERVOUS AF AND WHATEVER HAPPENS WE CANNOT TELL MY KIDS".
Sitting and staring at the blinking cursor at the end of the last sentence in the word doc.
"I should be writing," I whisper softly.
Siiiiiiiiiiigh. Ok. Despite being firmly in the "books are for reading, they're not objects d'art or prestige collection items" camp, I cop to buying the paperback version of Allison Saft's A Fragile Enchantment purely because the color scheme on the paperback cover is SO MUCH BETTER:
Joint injections are the opposite of fun...
I liked it a LOT, and I got the right hook:
#tunisiancrochet
Self-teaching Tunisian crochet! (I know the hook is wrong. We are using what we have to learn. If we like it, THEN we invest in the correct hook)
Ok, after work being bonkers bananapants for two and a half months straight where I basically didn't get any writing done, we squeaked one last chapter of the WIP under the wire for 2025: archiveofourown.org/works/578983...
That was Don't Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban. There are two more now, one is called You're the Problem; It's You, and the third is Like In Love With You
I was told that if all I did is word processor and basic internet, I didn't need a special laptop. I am now of the opinion that if you're going to work in 100K-word Word Docs, you probably need a gaming laptop, because every time I open the file it sounds like an airplane taking off...
The front cover of the ebook shows a magic wand trailing stars, with an elegant, art-nouveau style frame around the title.
Hooray! My sapphic romantasy short story "Five Reasons Why I am Absolutely Not in Love with my Nemesis" is available as an ebook now. Just subscribe to my Patreon at any level from $5/month upwards to snap up this & a whole bunch of other stories from me:
patreon.com/stephanieburgis
#romancelandia