Dear Friends,
Happy May! It’s all Camelot soundtracks, itchy eyes, scent-falls of lilacs, and a sense of sweeping sunshine here in Queens.
When last I wrote in the beginning of April, we were just coming off our show, Ballads from a Distant Star. In the month since, I’ve been receiving and going through our photographer Nelson Luna’s gorgeous shots and archival footage of Distant Stars, and ruminating on best next steps.
But meanwhile, I’ve been very busy! In April, I recorded two audiobooks for Tantor Media, a cozy mystery by Karen Rose Smith in her Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery series called Murder with Earl Grey Tea, and a romance in Jennifer Beckstrand’s Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill series called Second Chance on Huckleberry Hill. That was great fun; I always pretend like I’m Mel Blanc doing all those Looney Tunes characters when I’m in the booth. Best time ever!
The weeks I was not recording, I was: traveling to Boston for our “Enchanted Roots” panel and reading with Dr. Theodora Goss at Pandemonium Books and Games, writing my novel Saint Death’s Herald (sequel to Saint Death’s Daughter), and then traveling to Chicago to visit my dad and stepmom after too much time apart! (We went on lots of walks in the marsh preserves. So many birbs. So. Many. Birbs.)
I’ve also been collaborating on a long-term project called The Devil and Lady Midnight: a six-episode musical podcast, written with SFF’s own Tina Connolly and the inestimable Dr. Mary Crowell, whose discography is essential to gamers and geeks alike!
We meet once a week on Wednesday afternoon, discuss plot, songs, scenes, and bang away on our keyboards (both the laptop kind and the piano kind).
After we babble a bit about our lives, loves, and thoughts… some of which make their idea sneakily into the podcast! We have no deadline for this project. It is a work of love!
Most happily and unexpectedly, my collection Dark Breakers is one of the top ten finalists in its category for the Locus Awards! If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy of Dark Breakers for yourself, find it (and several of my other books!) at Mythic Delirium! Also: wherever books are sold! Or, if you feel like it, please order it from your local indie bookstores and request it at your local libraries too!
What’s on for May? And June? Well, here are a few things to look out for!
My Distant Stars collaborator, Carla Kissane is spreading the Good News about her Shakespearean Cabaret (I love it), her persona Carlotta-B from 1593 (I love her), and her upcoming show Petty Tyrants (I can’t wait). So I’m spreading it too!
For one: I highly recommend added yourself to her mailing list. Carlotta-B is very cheeky and incredibly brilliant, and whenever she is performing, there I will be, goggle-eyed, in the front row.
Right now, Carlotta-B is raising money to help pay her contributing artists. Now, Carla Kissane may be a one-woman powerhouse, but no one knows better than she that theatre-making is a collaborative effort, and Carla always pays her artists. She has this to say:
“Essentially, ANY donation of ANY amount made to Shakespearean Cabaret Co. between May 22nd-26th puts us in the draw to receive $1000 towards the project, which will be spent paying contributing artists (musician/s and dramaturg).
So, if 20 people gave $1 each, there’d be 20 more chances to win. Also, that $1 is tax deductible. It’s a win all round!
Thanks to everyone who considers, and for supporting Shakespearean Cabaret Co. in all the ways—was so great to see so many new faces at ‘Unbecoming' last year!
Here’s our mission statement: We aim to entertain you in ways that make Shakespeare accessible—by interrogating the language and the structures and systems of thought that pervade our belief systems and cultural landscapes today. Together with our audiences, we strive to reimagine a better, kinder world through a broader understanding of human experience. And we believe Shakespeare can be a bridge to cross over into that new territory. Will you walk with us?
Check us out via our website and Instagram and sign up for updates on our mailing list…
Here’s the fine print on donations: Shakespearean Cabaret Co.is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Shakespearean Cabaret Co. must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
As to where to find yours truly, C. S. E. Cooney in the upcoming weeks and months, let me tell you!
My husband the unspeakably adorable and frantic genius Carlos Hernandez, who is just now finishing out his teaching semester at CUNY, will be in Boston next week, Saturday May 20th, for the Greater Roxbury Book Fair! I shall accompany him, and probably buy more books that we don’t have shelves for.
So if you’ll be there, say hi! Carlos’s book, the Pura Belpré Award-winning Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, is a BPS Summer Reading selection for 6th graders.
Later in June, Carlos and I will both be attending DexLite 2023, from June 29-July 2nd, where we hope to play our beautiful TTRPG Negocios Infernales with the new friends we meet there!
Our publishers, Outland Entertainment, are looking to launch our Kickstarter in August. We’re all looking forward to the work of years finally coming to fruition! If you’re going to be at DexLite in Morristown, New Jersey, come say hi and play with us!
I mean… who doesn’t want to be play a secret wizard who’s been given phenomenal cosmic powers by aliens looking to stave off another Inquisition???
That’s all for now, friends. I promised this newsletter would be no more than once a month, but I must confess, I’ve wanted to write to you weekly ever since I wrote the first one! But I restrained myself, with this result: your semi-rare but lavish correspondence!
Yours truly,
C. S. E. Cooney
Tra-La! It's MAY! I have things to SAY!
so much excitement! I can but send kisses!