Hey awesome,

How goes May? We're in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, so it's gorgeous here. Maybe a little warmer than I expected, but it cools off at night, and then we get a flower-soaked evening breeze, so I'll take it.

Plus for the first time in our RV-ing adventures, we have a yard, and the dogs are Most Pleased.

It is beautiful here, but that's not what made me melt as referenced in the title of this email. It's been a productive few weeks. I sent my first round of edits back for Beyond Enemies aaaaand I am so very thrilled to share with you the art for the cover. I haven't shared it anywhere yet – you get to see it first.

AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

I'm obsessed. The noise I made when I first opened it was audible only to my dogs, but alas they aren't art connoisseurs so they didn't appreciate the pretty - they were just excited I was excited. What do you think? Please let me know! I am so looking forward to sharing the continued story of Talinn and Bee with you, sometime early 2024.

There's plenty else to keep us busy in the meantime. This week I submitted a 4HU story for the upcoming Phoenix Initiative anthology, recently had a new anthology come out Tales of Monstrosity: Monsters, Myths, and Miscreants:

- and over the last few weeks, I hung out with some awesome authors for some really fun conversations. Baen hosted new-to-Baen authors for a chat in the office: BFRH New Authors, Welcome to Baen. Then we debuted two new shows on the CKP YouTube Channel, Feral Ladies and CKP Last Call.

In Feral Ladies, Kacey Ezell, Melissa Olthoff, and I chat about whatever we decide to, with very little filter (because we're feral), and in CKP Last Call, a small group of us drink various beverages of our choice and chat books and plotting - also with very little filter (because we're authors). Both will have episodes once a month, and the first of each is out now!

Finally, I hung out with the awesome dudes at Super Geeked Up three weeks in a row. That included a bout of singing on the internet (in my case "singing") to celebrate their 400^th (!!!) episode, so if you want to see me making an absolute goof of myself in true can't-carry-a-tune-fashion, you can check that out.

While I'm (temporarily) not on any pressing deadlines, my goal is to get some reading done. My TBR list remains ever-growing, but up next I have Leigh Brackett, Tim Powers, and some super-secret ARCs to dive into, all of which are going to be amazing. Also I've already read these new CKP releases, which were a full delight in different ways, so in case you've missed them:

First up, Hunters and Hijinks, the latest from Melissa Olthoff and Nick Steverson. I laughed out loud AND caught my breath, which is a pretty fun combo:

They describe it as Office Space meets the Goonies and Firefly, so you know it has a TON of my favorite things. Look at the first paragraph of the back cover description:

Have you ever wanted to quit your soul-sucking hell of a day job, tell your supervisors exactly what you think of them, set the office on fire, jump in your slightly used spaceship and scour the galaxy for lost treasures? Of course, you have. And Reggie, Maddy, Ed, and Harold are no different.

It has hijinks and heartbreak and everything in between. You can't go wrong with these two fab humans + storytellers.

Second is Companion to Darkness, Casey Moores' new 4HU novel and the first of the Companion series, which will have different authors following the continuing adventures of the Hunters post-Ally. Casey made me tear up, laugh, and flinch – he's that good.

From the Amazon description:

Khatash has been retaken, but the price was steep, and Okeo, Dama of Clan Shadow Fury, and Zatohachi, her blind swordsman companion, are working to rebuild it. But when the father of Okeo’s kits goes missing on a mission to track down information on the illicit Malluma Songo trade on a pleasure planet, Okeo and Zato head out to investigate.

What they don’t know is that her rebellious, sole remaining kit and the kit’s teenage companion are tagging along for the trip, and they have a much different approach to the search. While Okeo and Zato lay low and follow a more traditional path, her kit plans to step out of the shadows and broadcast the secrets of the Hunters to the galaxy.

And maybe become a star along the way.

Speaking of great reads - have you nominated your recent faves for Dragon Awards? Do you know about the Dragon Awards? They're one of the few fan-driven awards, and given you have an email address you can take part! If you want to participate in the utter joy of a fan award that means a ton to the people who receive it, and simultaneously provide encouragement to creative people for the bargain price of free - you can nominate your favorite works that came out between July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023 here!

As some of you may already know, the incredible author Kacey Ezell and I are basically brain twins, and we have a lot of the same faves this year - it was super hard to narrow down, but let me share her gorgeous layout if you'd like some suggestions:

If you haven't read/played them yet, there's still time! Nominations close July 19. And if you want some links, you can check out my post here, which has them all! So be part of some awesome fan-amazingness, and let me know - what have been your favorites this year?

Since I clearly won't rest until everyone's TBR is as wonderful and overwhelming as gravity allows, here are even more treats:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/free-sci-fi-ebooks-2/b6h1k5eiqw

https://books.bookfunnel.com/free-fantasy-and-sci-fi-ebooks/v6k45yr1jr

https://books.bookfunnel.com/bookspry-scifi/8s5nqj5h15

More writing and reading await here, so I'm off to sit outside with my laptop and try to avoid divebombing bugs (they are…incredibly large here). Wish me luck?

Til next time,

Marisa