Letter of News: February 2026

Dear Friends,

Happy Lunar New Year, Ramadan Kareem and Lenten Season to all who celebrate!

Once again my storytelling impulses are constrained by time and tide. I want to write about what a wonderful time I had at the CBC Book Club and why I ended up weeping on national radio; how lovely it was to do back to back events in Kingston and Hamilton (Ontario) last week, at the Queen's University library and the Write Like festival; how thrilled and relieved I am that a beloved local cafe has successfully moved to a bigger location near its original one, and how sometimes change can just be an unalloyed good that doesn't feel like death and you get to just enjoy something fulsomely and without complication (though I can't speak for the staff and wish them the best managing the transition!).

Instead, sensitivity to the relentless tick of capitalist clock time means trying to make sure you all know about DEALS and SALES while it's still possible to take advantage of them! So without further ado –

Feb 17-20: Waterstones Pre-Order Sale for Seasons of Glass and Iron

UK friends: Waterstones is offering 25% off pre-orders of selected titles until midnight GMT on Friday, February 20, and have included Seasons of Glass and Iron in the deal. (This only applies to the unsigned edition.)

Pre-orders are extraordinarily helpful to authors, especially in benighted times of paper shortages and other economic uncertainties. Pre-ordering a book you're interested in reading is probably the highest-impact action you can take in supporting your favourite authors, followed closely by talking about the book in your circles.

This deal seems to be an online-only situation – ordering the book to your home instead of into a shop – but I urge you to check with your local indies to see if they're offering any kind of pre-order promos as well, because supporting brick & mortar bookshops whenever you're able to is really important to me personally, and I don't have the same kind of visibility on those offers (although I can tell US readers that Gibson's Bookstore in New Hampshire is offering 25% off pre-orders from February 20-22, because they tagged me on insta to tell me so!)

Also in the UK, the Kindle edition of This Is How You Lose the Time War is currently £0.99 until March 1. This usually means all other e-tailers will price-match for the same period! Do with that information what you will. Looking it up on Amazon UK showed me that the book is now labeled "This is How You Lose the Time War: The epic time-travelling love story and Twitter sensation," which I find very funny, as if the book has spawned a memoir of itself.

In other news, praise for Seasons of Glass and Iron has joyously continued to roll in: I was thrilled to see it on Canada's Booksellers' List for Winter, in which

booksellers across the country vote to determine their top 20 new or soon-to-be-published titles. Books of any genre and from anywhere in the world can be nominated. At the heart of each list is a Top Pick—the single book that earned the most votes nationwide. From national bestsellers to hidden gems, The Booksellers’ List shines a spotlight on the books Canadians are most excited to read and recommend.

It's also a bonus pick on the US LibraryReads list for March. About LibraryReads:

Rather than picking “the best” of anything, LibraryReads represents collective favorites—the books library staff loved reading and cannot wait to share. There are no judges or juries. (see our infographic!) Participation is open to everyone who works in a public library, whether senior staff or new arrivals, in any area of the library. LibraryReads is designed to be inclusive and diverse, representing a broad range of reading tastes and showcasing a variety of new titles, including buzzed-about debuts, genre favorites, bestselling authors, and lesser-known midlist titles that public library staff are raving about.

It's simply such a gift to be loved by librarians and booksellers, and I'm really grateful!

Award Eligibility

January through March/April is award season in SFF, containing the nomination periods for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. I'm on record (in a post now 12 years old!) saying I think it's good and cool for people to look back on the work they've had published in a given year and offer it up for award consideration. I think it's good housekeeping. So here's mine!

• The River Has Roots is a novella, published by Tor.com in March 2025, about 20K words.
• "A Road Less Taken" is a short story published by the Scottish Book Trust, 5400 words, serialized between November 17-23 in 2025 (link is to the last instalment which contains links to all the previous ones, so make sure to start at the top!)
• "Why I Need the Birds" is an essay published in Sarah Gailey's Stone Soup, part of their Love Letters: Reasons to Be Alive project

I'm proud of all of these very different works! Last newsletter I also listed a bunch of other people involved with them if you enjoyed them and are nominating for the Hugos, and will send you there rather than reposting everything.

Upcoming Events: UK Tour Stops + TriCon in Halifax

Some more places to find me this spring!

First, a refresher on the US events for Seasons of Glass and Iron:

• March 28, Salt Lake City, UT: In Conversation with Cass Biehn, hosted by Legendarium and Under the Umbrella at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts
• March 29, Portland, OR: In Conversation with Kelly Sue DeConnick, hosted by Powell's City of Books
• March 30, Spokane, WA: In Conversation with Stephanie Oakes, hosted by Auntie's at the Spokane Central Library

After that I'll be headed to the UK! Save these dates, times TBD:

• April 7, Glasgow: Waterstones Argyle Street, in conversation with Terri Windling
• April 8, Edinburgh: Toppings Edinburgh, chaired by one of the Toppings booksellers
• April 9, Manchester: Blackwells, in conversation with Eliza Chan

And after that, I'll be in Halifax as Guest of Honour for the first ever TriCon! If you're attending, you can sign up for a kaffeklatsch with me or any of these other fine people.

I hope to see you there!

In other news – man, I don't even know, there is simply so much, and I find it hard to speak to anything at a length that feels both appropriate and timely. I've been loving going to the gym, which I've been doing 3 times a week for the last couple of years, and I took a selfie last month in a fancy hotel's bathroom mirror because sometimes in very specific conditions low light is a gift.

I hope this finds you thriving, taking care of each other and being taken care of as needed, doing everything you can to fight for the liberation of all.

Best wishes,

Amal