August Updates and Links

I genuinely don’t understand how it’s the middle of August already. I think my brain is still stuck somewhere back in April? Summer was somehow both a million years long, and a blip?

Is this just what being in your 40s is like?

Anyway… I recently made several updates to my website, the most notable is which is the addition of the Publishing section, which showcases my ongoing work with Shiraki Press. This is the first time in 20-ish years that my website has not featured game development as the primary focus. Feels weird, man. (Good, but weird.)

Publishing

Speaking of the press, I’ve just finished editing the hilarious and delightful The Most Terrible & Wicked Dark Lord Accidentally Invents the Public Library by Misha Maxwell, which we have coming out in March 2027 (preorder now!) and I’m on to book design next, with a very exciting cover reveal to come soon. 👀

And last weekend we did two back-to-back markets in two different locations, which was among the more exhausting things we’ve done since starting the press. Saturday was Stanwood Book Fest—the first year for this event—and Sunday was Puget Sound Book Festival, which had incredible turnout and made us way more sales than we anticipated. ❤️ These were also our first events using the new custom book boxes Brianne built—inspired by this design—and they were a real hit.

Writing

As the end of summer draws near, I’m trying very hard to get back to regularly writing fiction, after the first half of the year disrupted absolutely all my habits and routines. One of my goals for 2026 has been to identify and start a long-form writing project, and I’ve finally figured out what that’s going to be and I have it mostly outlined (yes, I’m a planner) but I have yet to solve the problem of consistent writing time and space, so the actual drafting has remained elusive.

I’m trying to find ways to be more flexible about how, when, and where I write, and I’m trying to train myself to get better at writing through distraction, so hopefully I’ll get my word count back up to something more personally acceptable over the next couple months. I have so many stories I desperately want to get out onto the page!

Reading

I’ve been reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula—very slowly, because life, and because reading for the press takes priority these days—and it’s kind of a fascinating experience. There are so many places where I can see the origins of modern horror tropes, but they still (mostly) hold up on their own merits here.

I’ve also been sipping from Borges’ The Book of Imaginary Beings, because that kind of shit is so my jam, and I recently got a long sought-after copy of Structuring Life to Support Creativity, because that is my ongoing struggle these days.

Oh, these Afro-cosmicism recs are going on my reading list immediately. 👀

Whence joy?

I had a pretty rough summer in a lot of ways, and joy has felt thin on the ground, but it’s still there if you remember to look for it.

• Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, has been giving away his fortune for decades. I just learned about this comment he dropped on Slashdot last year on his 75th birthday, and now “smiles minus frowns” is gonna live rent-free in my head for the rest of my life. (Mastodon)
• Librarians have begun hosting public workshops on how to avoid AI. This is the praxis we need in the world. (TechCrunch)
• Hahahaha, get bent, Kalshi. (The Seattle Times)

Also, I’m a January Capricorn, and all the astrologers out there are telling me the August solar eclipse is the beginning of a major shift out of the strife of the last what feels like approximately one billion years, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

Whence angst?

Whence not angst? It feels like everything is on fire, both figuratively and literally.

• The Wikimedia Foundation is union busting. Wikimedia. I’ve cancelled my long-standing monthly donation over this. It all just feels bad, man. (Medium)
• Google is using selfie videos for login authentication. This seems so inherently compromised! I would seriously consider getting everything important out of your Google accounts immediately. (Engadget)
• AI companies are buying and destroying rare books to train AI. This is “burning of the library of Alexandria” shit. (Futurism)
• Guess we’re letting Sinclair take over the entire TV industry now? Cool, cool. (The Guardian)
• More layoffs at Microsoft—despite record profits—and then The Seattle Times shamefully fails to mention said extremely recent destruction of careers and livelihoods in this puff piece about how rich Microsoft is now. Come on, friends. 🙄 (The Seattle Times)

I’m just so tired, y’all. So tired.

Upcoming events

I’ll be at LAConV in Anaheim, CA August 27-31, selling books for Shiraki Press in the dealers hall. I’ll also be on a panel called Writing a Way Out of This Mess on Thursday the 27th at 1:30pm in the Palos Verdes room, so you can come listen to me and several others either talk about how we make sense of the dystopian nightmare we’re all living through, or share an hour-long collective scream of existential frustration. You know, either way.

We’re also doing a special evening event at LAConV to celebrate next week’s launch of Fruits of Our Labor alongside the earlier books in our 2026 slate: Accelerated Growth Environment by Lauren C. Teffeau, Wine for Roses by Emily O’Malley Liu, and The Color of Time by Millie Abecassis. This is a hell of a first-year frontlist for a brand new press, and we couldn’t be prouder of these authors and their amazing stories. Join us in celebration on Friday August 28 at 7:30pm Pacific to meet all four authors and pick up signed copies of each of their books! (RSVP here)

Please note: An LAConV pass is required for all panels and the Shiraki Press book launch event.

Further out:

• We’re online with our first Shiraki Press Book Club September 10.
• I’m at the Edmonds Night Market September 18 and again December 11.
• I’m at the PNBA Fall Tradeshow in Portland September 27-29.
• I’m at Third Place Books Ravenna on September 29 for Ian Patterson and Inez Ray — Fruits of our Labor & Buzzard.
• I’m at World Fantasy Con October 22-25.

This month’s closing thought: