I have a treat for you!

In anticipation of their release of an omnibus of three Shakespearean novelettes, T. O. Tate is allowing me to host a giveaway! They are giving away three copies of the Shardfall omnibus! One on the Patreon, one on my pinned Bluesky post and one on my reading blog. All you have to do is leave a comment either on the blog post or on the Patreon post or the Bluesky post. Comment your favourite Shakespearean work, any work original or reimagined. Any medium. Do not have to be a subscriber or follower, though those are always welcome. I will contact the winner in 2 weeks.

Just now

T. O. Tate is the pen name of author A. Z. Louise, who has an impressive back catalogue of works — short stories, poetry, novelettes, novellas, novels — as well as running Tiny Crow Press, a store for unique and incredible pre-made book covers. Today is the cover reveal for the Shardfall omnibus. So: behold this badass cover!

Shardfall: Tragedy Reimagined is an omnibus of three Black, queer post-apocalyptic Shakespeare retellings paired with spot illustrations and sonnets by the Bard.

A Concrete Crown: MacBeth Retold

Micah, a seasoned scout, has seen firsthand the dangers of a desolate city corrupted by a mysterious contaminant, but as the contamination spreads, his cousin Dawson only grows more convinced that it’s safer inside than out. When their battle of wills escalates from argument to blackmail and murder, Micah must ask if his motives are as noble as he wants to believe.

A Starless Eye: Othello Reloaded

Ollie, a former sniper, has been forced into retirement by a mysterious disease known as sliversickness that slowly eats away at her right eye. A perpetual outsider in an isolated underground military base, Ollie’s only solace is her lover, DJ. But that relationship is forbidden, putting Ollie’s already uncertain future in jeopardy, and her only protection is DJ, whose fidelity has been called into question.

A Seething Heart: Ophelia Requited

Orris, afflicted with a mysterious disease called sliversickness since birth, finds themself in the middle of a struggle for power between their lover Hunter and his stepfather Charles. Rumors of ghosts creep through the Squall’s passageways, and Hunter’s behavior becomes more and more erratic. Everyone looks to Orris to help him, worried that he, like so many others, has fallen ill. But as vines begin to stir inside their chest, Hunter kills Orris’s father, leaving vengeance as their only option.

Release date: 10/27/26

But Shardfall here for most ebook platforms and in paperback format. Don’t forget to ask your library to stock it!

For virtual release party details, follow T.O. at https://bsky.app/profile/azlouise.bsky.social, join their brand new event discord at https://discord.gg/XJMrfMn8MC, or sign up for their newsletter: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/640233/102853824392201664/share

I recently reread The Song of Achilles for a cry. It’s such a beautiful tale of love and loss and hope and hubris. There’s romance, fighting, murder most foul — anything you want is held within these pages. Gods, monsters, men who are both, beautiful women and victory to reach toward. It’s got it all. Madeline Miller did an incredible job with this imaginative retelling of Achilles’ life and Patroclus’ love of a singular life lived together.

I was once again enthralled. This time, I read via the audiobook. The narration was perfect. The characters were vivid and lifelike and I had a good cry over the end. Again.

if you haven’t read it yet, you should. It’s incredible.

Less than a year ago, her best friend went missing at the amusement park. Most people would never have entered those grounds again. Riley? She gets a job there. Even before she gets high with a co-worker, weird stuff starts happening. A disembodied voice from a broken pay phone? One in which Tara distinctly does not seem to be having a good time.

Riley has had it with the useless cops and the town that seems like it’s moved on. She’s going to investigate every spook-ass inch of that park if it’s the last thing she does — and it may be.

By Delilah S. Dawson

What happens when police and governments are owned by corporations and owing a debt can be a capital offense?

Patsy has two options to save her mother’s life: pay the debt, which is exorbitant, or become an indentured collections servant time Valor for 5 days, collecting payment or executing debtors — or offering some of them the same choice she’s taken.

Millionaires on paper, proprietresses of meth houses, newlyweds hoping for a better life, her mom, the debtors span all walks of life and she and her dog head off to corral them all. Because in this world, worth doesn’t matter; debt is fatal.

This is a charming light romance about identity, found family and authenticity.

Violet Thistlewaite has made a break with her old life. She’s done with the rampaging and plaguing and inspiring fear whenever she goes. In Dragon’s Rest, she has a chance to be Violet Thistlewaite, florist. The main thing interrupting her new sense of calm is Nathan Marsh, the Apothecary next door.

With his wounded heart and her secrets, is there any hope for them?

by Gerardo Semano Cordova

This book is a beautiful, sorrowful, queer meditation on death, grief and the life we find in the midst of it. Told from four perspectives, it show. that no one grief belongs to any one person.

As we learn from the blurb, a young mother, Magos, loses her son. He was born with only one lung and that lung carried him through more life than his birth doctors ever expected. Santiago was ten when the lung gave out and Magos immediately grapples with both love and hate for the organ that allowed her son to live but that also put such harsh limits on that life. But it’s from that lung that she ultimately derives comfort and even some degree of closure.

Magos take a piece of lung and holds onto it, not being able to let it go. Not being able to let her son go. Having left her husband behind to his own grief, she returns to Mexico and is confronted with a local piece of folklore that a part of the body kept from the dead can be fed. What it may grow into from that point is a little less clear, but it’s enough to give a grieving mother hope.

This little piece of lung will unite the lives of many people throughout the tale, each taking their turn to voice what this ritual has done to impact their lives.

The final voice is the most moving of all.

What is grief? Is it a way to freedom? Can it keep you caged? Does it keep others trapped with you? This book asks many questions and answers none of them. But it’s a beautiful conundrum.