Hello lovely readers!

What a wild month it’s been. In writing the news is either feast or famine. For months, even years, the news might be “yup, still writing that book” or “still waiting for publication,” and then, wham! Everything arrives at once.

Specifically, this newsletter's got:

• a new short story, “The Truth About Crows”!
• news about my novella, THE FINAL CHRONICLE OF YENEH, coming in 2026!
• release dates for all the Brennex audiobooks!
• plus the usual roundup of cool stuff I’ve been reading, and cute animal pictures

This is all amazing stuff, and I’m absolutely not complaining! But what you won’t find (yet) is the thing I promised last month, an update about my next series. Please be patient on that just a little longer, because I want to give each announcement its due, and not let them step on each others’ toes. Or more aptly, not attack each others’ tails, as my kitties tend to do.

New short story: “The Truth About Crows”

Free to read online at Factor Four, “The Truth About Crows” is a fun little flash story about two of my favorite critters, a crow and a dragon. (I have a lot of favorite critters, but doing a quick mental count, these two are my most written-about, with the possible exception of cats.) They have some natural affinities. Both are clever, sometimes too clever for their own good. Both have an insatiable love of shiny things. What happens when one invades the other’s space? You’ll have to read and find out.

Coming soon: A new novella!!!

I’m SO excited to share this one with you. I got this news just before sending my last newsletter, but it’s not wise to share this sort of thing without a signed contract, so I had to sit on my hands and wait. But now I can announce: THE FINAL CHRONICLE OF YENEH will be published by Horned Lark Press! 

This is a beautiful, eerie, genre-defying story that’s part ecological sci-fi, part space colonization, and part portal fantasy. I’ve been describing it as “the rewilding planet” or “Narnia in space.” I’m absolutely delighted that it’ll soon be out in the world for you to read, and I’ll let you know as soon as pre-orders are up.

To tide you over, here’s the (somewhat spoilery) summary I gave the publisher:

Lady Ada Quintrall, heir to her grandfather the Duke of Corbridge, wants nothing more than to see her family’s new planet successfully terraformed so they can mine its deposits of the rare gem viridene, restoring their fortune and ensuring a stable future for them and their people. That means shutting away her whimsical side (including the beloved Chronicles of Yeneh, a children’s portal fantasy written by her own ancestor)—and refusing the requests of Dr. Zamora, the xenobiologist who is begging to study the planet’s native life before it’s driven extinct.

Ada’s own encounters with the native life are vicious and unsettling, but Zamora is determined to learn more. When he trespasses into an Infested Zone, Ada goes after him and discovers the astonishing truth. Not only does this planet have native sentient life—those sentient beings are somehow, impossibly, the yeheneh: the same beings that inspired the Chronicles of Yeneh.

As she untangles the complicated history between her family and the yeheneh, she comes to realize the depth of the wrongs her grandfather is committing. But she and Zamora are the yeheneh’s only human allies. After a lifetime of striving not to disappoint her grandfather, betraying him may be the only way to stop him from committing genocide—and to begin making amends for her family’s hateful legacy.

Gifted of Brennex audiobooks: One out now, two coming soon

In case you missed it, the audiobook for WARPED STATE is out now! Yes, WARPED STATE is now available in whatever format you prefer to read: ebook, paperback, or audiobook. Here’s a little sneak peek:
 

You can find it anywhere you buy books.

Audiobooks for the rest of the trilogy are coming out soon, too: Dissonant State on October 14, followed by Ravenous State on October 28. They’re available for pre-order on some sites, with more to come as the date gets closer.

All three are narrated by the terrific Adi Cabral. It’s always an odd experience to hear a stranger read your words aloud, and I love their interpretation of these books.

Whew, that was a lot! If you’ve made it this far, you deserve some just-for-fun stuff. I’ve got links to three interesting stories from around the web. One of these put me in mind of THE FINAL CHRONICLE OF YENEH (and is a concept I’d love to play with more explicitly in future stories), while the other two share a vibe with my soon-to-be-announced new series. Can you guess which is which?

• Schools in India started adding wild-harvested ingredients to school lunches, and surprise! Kids eat more and healthier when their food tastes good. Foraged and native foods are making a comeback more broadly in India, apparently, and I’d love to know what some of these taste like.
• New Zealand just granted personhood to Mount Taranaki, a place considered an ancestor by the local Māori, giving it “all the rights, powers, duties, responsibilities and liabilities of a person.” That includes a much-needed right to conservation.
• Cheese is delicious—and this article makes the case that it’s also inherently queer, so it’s unsurprising that the cheese industry and the queer community have a lot of overlap.

For our animal photo this month, some special guests: this family of deer has been hanging out around our neighborhood, and they let themselves into my neighbor’s yard for a snack and afternoon nap.

Until next time,

Jo Miles

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