We are one week out from the release of The Elements of Dark Academia!

Waterstones seems to be shipping it already!

It has stories from E.A. Poe to M.L. Rio; Evelyn Waugh to Olivie Blake!

All the weird Classics kids are reading it!

There are a few things happening shortly:

My marvellous publishers have some cool things planned, and, not wanting to ruin them, I’m keeping them SECRET. But… there are another two? three? possible events planned this autumn, some partners that take my breath away, and also an actual, brilliant marketing team with ideas for Content™.

One more glimpse of this sexxxy book:

Oh wait, baby got back:

Book boudoir photos! Ordering options here:

As always, the very best option is YOUR BELOVED LOCAL BOOKSHOP.

I’ve finished the summer reading challenge that Anne set for me. There was a break in there as I finished The Rouse (more later; inevitably).

The final few books in the challenge were:

The Dark Between the Trees by Fiona Barnett - Exceptional rural horror. During the (English) Civil War, a group of soldiers disappeared in Moresby Wood. In the modern day, a group of researchers enter those self-same woods to learn what happened. Both stories are told at the same time, giving us two very different perspectives on the unfolding horror. I love a good horror novel and this reminds me that I don’t read enough of them. [One of the great challenges of the scary story is how you use the reader. They’re outside of the story and have a certain sense of … omniscence. The reader is safe at home, puzzling out the plot and second-guessing all the decisions. How the author parcels out crumbs of knowledge - to both create a path and keep the reader hungry for more - is critical to how horror works.] Also, there’s a great monster. But what if… the real monster were a system of academic advancement that rewards publication and politics and not, actually, the pursuit of knowledge?! GASP!

Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin - Obviously Michael Palin is going to be a great writer, but, holy cow, he’s really a great writer. He inserts himself just enough in the story, but never gets in the way. This is a fascinating story of ego and devotion. The detail is brilliant and never dull. He’s empathetic to the context without being forgiving of its excesses. Palin also brings the scientific context to life: why the two voyages of the Erebus were so important for research. If anything, he’s too restrained when it comes to musing about the non-scientific purposes of journeys as well (e.g. national pride and hubris).

The Spell of London by H.V. Morton - This is a charming collection of 1926 essays; vignettes of London first published in the Express. When gathered together in this format, you can see a few themes emerge. Morton is a little obsessed with infidelity (quite a few vignettes involve his scathing take on it), street cats (he admires them) and scientific progress. The latter is particularly fun, as he looks at the ‘rank and file’ who help make things tick along - whether that’s radio or cable operators or the men staffing the overnight trains. In his search for new stories and perspectives, Morton surfaces the people who make the city tick: office boys, carters, tube drivers. He frequently bemoans the modernisation of the city, but never takes it out on the people. A tricky balance, but he does it well. (He’s ocassionally antisemitic, which certainly takes away from the fun, but, hey, 1926 innit.)

A few others, not part of the challenge, but I snuck them in there:

The Long Ride by James McKimmey - I love James McKimmey. He’s got a knack for creating really claustrophobic situations. This is an amusingly dated one: a station wagon full of strangers, driving from Iowa to San Francisco. The passengers include an undercover agent, a bank robber, a bank robber robber, a sexxxy lady, and a few clueless NPCs that add comedy value. It isn’t McKimmey’s best, but it is very readable.

Trad Wife by Sarah Langan - You spend your whole life waiting for a speculative fiction take on tradwives and, whammo, two come along at once. The other, of course, being the much-discussed Yesteryear. (There are some similarities, but I won’t dwell on those.) In Trad Wife, a burnt-out/much-trolled journalist is given a rare interview opportunity with a popular tradwife influencer. Shenanigans ensue.

This is a good horror novel. I am 99% sure the pitch concept was “The Yellow Wallpaper” x The King in Yellow, which is flippin’ brilliant and, on that front, Trad Wife does not disappoint. Is it fun to think of tradwives as an extension of the Cthulhu mythos? Hell yeah.

But does it make it a particularly insightful book about tradwives? No. (Honestly, neither was Yesteryear - although it too was a lot of fun.) The tradwife movement is, and should be, inviting literary investigation and, honestly, it is great how this is inspiring playful speculative fiction. But… I could easily stock a library with insightful, probing and - honestly, empathetic - novels about cults, neo-Nazis, jihadis, red pillers, serial killers, gang members, school shooters, etc. I would like to read that sort of novel about this form of (…wait, I’m about to drop the e-word…) extremism as well.

However, one does not review a book for what it is not, so to land this particular helicopter: Trad Wife is very good horror - a sort of spiritual heir to Rosemary’s Baby on top of everything else, as well as a genuinely delightful Mythos-extension.

I am joining the editorial team of the award-winning ParSec magazine!

Ian Whates has been at the helm of the magazine since its launch in 2021. After seven years, he is shaking things up, and ParSec is now becoming a THREE HEADED MONSTER. Ian, Donna Scott and I are each editing one issue every year.

I’ve always wanted to edit a magazine. I am a child of the era where magazines were WHERE IT WAS AT. (Not the 1920s, but that’s also true.) I loved commissioning fiction for Pornokitsch and I love commissioning fiction for anthologies but a magazine has always felt like a ‘thing’ to me. Getting to splash in the deep end? With the existing, award-winning ParSec? Alongside two of my favourite editors?! This is an absolute treat.

I drew the proverbial short straw, and the first Jared-edited issue of ParSec (#17) publishes later this year. It is a bit of a mad scramble and there are some Favours Owed as a result, but I’m pleased with the way it is shaping up.

The latest issue of ParSec (#16) is out now from PS Publishing.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words after last week’s Shelfie (#100!). When I sat down to write it, I thought I had an interesting story to tell about my ridiculous array of Muji notebooks. Instead, I processed a LOT OF FEELINGS. I assure you, no one expected the dead cat, least of all me.

Here’s a photo I dug up of all three cats being their goofy selves. That’s Buster, Foof, Peep, and it shows very much which of the three of them is in charge.

EJ Swift’s When There Are Wolves Again picked up the Clarke Award. It had previously won the BSFA Award, so it has now restored my faith in multiple science fiction awards, which is pretty remarkable. But, then again, it is a pretty remarkable book. Find it here.