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Virginia friends!!!! Go see Colleen!!!

My Renfaire persona, Sister Hildegarde von BenMissingdeadlines of the Little Sisters of Pen, Paper, and Penury, Patron Saint of Cartoonists.

I'll be her at the Wolfswood Faire in Appomattox, VA this Saturday, talking about comics and illuminated manuscripts. Yes, I'll have books for sale and some art.

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“The judge’s order makes it clear that we cannot judge a book by its cover or a maliciously selected excerpt out of context,” said Stephana Ferrell of the Florida Freedom to Read Project. “This means that the thousands of books that have been prohibited from student access without careful consideration of their value should be returned to shelves immediately. Florida cannot call itself the “freest state” while it blatantly violates the First Amendment rights of our youngest citizens.” Dan Novak, attorney for the plaintiffs, called the decision “a complete knockout. There’s not a single issue that the court did not side with the plaintiffs on,” per the Orlando Sentinel.

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Saw this on my dash and exclaimed—out loud—that’s America’s ass. Lmaoooo.

I mean, true. But still.

STEVE ROGERS + party in the back (requested by anonymous for 10k follower celebration)

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Last couple of days to get in on the pledge manager for our record breaking Kickstarter of the GOOD OMENS graphic novel. The Kickstarter is over, but the pledge manager is open for just a little bit longer if you want to place a last minute book purchase, or to add some extra goodies to your pledge: cups, socks, notebooks, pins and more.

Books start shipping this coming week! Tens of thousands to go out!

LINK HERE.

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Also my face when given a cookie, unless it is oatmeal raisin — in which case, you can keep your betrayal cookie/cookie of lies. (To each, their own! I loathe raisins.)

Sesame Street (1979)

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Life goals!

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Hey, you. Go buy my friend's book. It's brilliant.

Yes, TPG’s publisher is Devi Pillai. No, she’s not actually the headmistress at Hellebore.

Or is she?

This post is an ad for The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

The Hellebore Technical Institute is for the ambitiously gifted: Anti-Christs, Ragnaroks, and monsters in the making. But on graduation day, the faculty feast on their students. Trapped in the school’s vast library, Alessa Li—kidnapped and forcibly enrolled—must lead her classmates in something they were never taught: how to survive.

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These are incredible.

chamomile blossoms for the angel

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"Director Phoebe Kemp said in a statement: “Twelfth Night already toys with gender and performance – it feels like Shakespeare wrote it for us. This reading is about joy, solidarity and showing what’s possible when trans and nonbinary artists are at the centre of the story.”"

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Go get it, kittens!!!

For one week and ONE WEEK ONLY, if you missed the original GOOD OMENS GRAPHIC NOVEL KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN you can order NOW! Books are packed and ship NEXT WEEK.

Check out the Pledge Manager! You have ONE WEEK.

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Up for this year’s Rhysling Award!

Reading 2024 poetry? Try the poem "The High Priestess Writes a Love Letter to The Magician" by Ali Trotta! (@always-coffee)

You can read it here!

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YIKES

Hi Jenn,

I saw a TikTok where a literary agent was showing an example of what she says when she reaches out to Barnes and Noble to ask them to host a signing event on behalf of an author she represents.

Is that something that agents typically do? I was under the impression that’s generally something handled by the publishers or even the authors themselves.

I was like "whut" so I looked it up on TikTok. I assume it was this one? If so, yeah, no. Red Flag City, tbh.

First of all, you are quite correct, agents do not typically cold call random B&N locations to book author events. In fact, if you watch that tik-tok, the reaching out by phone didn't even work -- the bookseller on the other end just gave her the email. Why didn't she just START with sending the email -- obviously they want the info by email rather than cold calling whoever happens to be at the info desk that day! But whatever.

And yes, correct, for trade published authors, events are usually set up either by the publisher or by the author themselves. (I do have a bookselling background, so I know a lot of booksellers -- I might very well give advice to my author about how to approach the bookstore, or even give an intro to an events person I know or something like that -- but it's just not the agent's job to be booking events.)

And as long as we are PARSING things: Another oddity is, she asked on that call about the store potentially "carrying the books on consignment" -- that implies that the books are not in stock in the store, nor are they easily orderable from a regular distributor that the store might work with such as Ingram. So, she's probably talking about Independently Published (self-published) books. But THAT's a little odd, because most people who self-publish don't have a literary agent for those books?

So I looked at her website. It's... interesting. The "About" page is a hot mess and clearly hasn't been copyedited, as there are repeated sections, etc. But also:

Who We Represent Independent Authors (fiction, nonfiction, YA, fantasy, sci-fi, thrillers, etc.) Screenwriters with original scripts Writer-directors with developed IP looking for adaptation support Representation is selective and by application only. We work exclusively with paying clients under our Literary Agent Service, which includes personal outreach, pitch development, and strategic planning.

So, they don't act as a literary agent in the typical sense, where an unpublished author is having them shop their work to publishers for a commission -- rather, they are taking independent authors who have already self-published, and charging them to help "adapt" or shop their work to Hollywood producers and the like. If, indeed, they are even doing that!

Because under "Storytellers" where you might expect to see, I don't know, PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT, there are none to be found, in fact, just an invitation for people to "get on the waiting list" -- Again, hastily written and not copyedited, as the Graphic Novel bit is in all the categories, even the ones that aren't about Graphic Novels. Apparently THESE Storytellers don't always believe in attention to detail!

You can, however, pay a cool $50 for the "CEO" of the "Agency" to have a one-on-one chat with you. (That, in case you were wondering, is ALSO not normal!)

#SCHMAGENT

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Long before the introduction of color film, a Russian chemist and photographer named Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky used an innovative technique. He took three individual black and white photos, each through a colored filter (red, green, and blue), to create fully colored, high-quality pictures. The photo of this woman, taken by him, is around 107 years old!

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Poetry Collection!!

Darlings, I have some brilliants news!! If you've ever wanted a poetry collection from me, you're in luck! I'm working with the AMAZING folks at CLASH Books -- Offerings for Ordinary Gods, coming summer 2026!!!

To say I am pumped is a understatement!

Let's go, baby!