This post has been incredibly hard to write, but here we are.

So, before I get into the career necromancy, some housekeeping.

Who tf are you?

If you've never heard of my ass before - uh, hi. Thanks for reading this far! I'm an artist and writer; you can call me Magpie or Michelle. She/her or xe/xer. I'm queer and poly, and I live with my two spouses, our son, and three cats in southern Alberta, Canada. I make jewelry and knitwear and sometimes sew; I write science fiction, fantasy, literary fiction - and maybe romantic and gothics?! Ideas are cooking. I even have a non-fiction research project I want to work on and publish.

I got married in 2022, moved houses in 2023, and moved again in 2024, the same year my wife had our son. It's been exciting and busy and packed, and life keeps happening - but it's been pretty hard on my non-fiction writing output.

Also politics and mental and physical health issues have been a thing happening to me, so you know, those take time, too.

The rundown

So, what can you expect from this space? How often can you expect it?

• I'm hoping to post biweekly (every two weeks) or more.

• Content will vary between poetry and articles, with fiction excerpts or short stories, brain permitting, plus occasional publishing news.

• I may re-publish some of my best old articles from the blog archives. Re-published articles may be edited or rewritten, and both their vintage status and any alterations to the original content will be noted.

• Expect typos. Sometimes I need to say things more than I want to say them perfectly. I'm also going to be writing on my phone a lot.

I'm going to sunset my MailChimp newsletter and switch to publishing on Substack and on Patreon. I may still publish on Medium and Tumblr, but I'm considering sunsetting my OG Blogspot blog for traffic reasons. (SciFiMagpie is my handle on pretty much every site you can think of.)

Regardless, the same content will be accessible at each of these social media locations. I'm probably not ever going to do exclusive or paywalled content. At most, paywalled content might be early releases.

I'm also sunsetting my editing work. I'll be doing the occasional book for friends, but 11 years is a good run. I haven't always been as reliable or prompt as I would have liked, mostly from mental health, and it's time for me to let editing go. I need to make stuff.

However, if you like my fiction and non fiction, or my artisan stuff, this is probably good news. I'm also going to be posting more on my Instagrams, so follow @rainbowbazaarartcollective or @SciFiMagpie on Instagram or even Tiktok to see what I'm up to. Theoretically, I might be on Bluesky, but I'm more of a long-form or group-chat bitch, so I can't promise much.

I also want your opinion on all this! If you're familiar with my previous writing, chime in. Where do you want to see me?

If you've read all this way, leave me a 👍or ❤️ the post.

See you all soon - for real this time. Change is scary, but I have too much in my head, and I'm tired of closing my mental cupboards on half-finished ideas. Time to start releasing them into the wild.

***

A writer and artist, Michelle Browne lives in southern AB with xer family and their cats. Xe is currently working on the next books in her series, other people's manuscripts, knitting, jewelry-making, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

Find xer all over the internet: *Website * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * Amazon * Tumblr * Mastodon *Facebook * Medium * Twitter  * OG Blog* Instagram * Paypal.me * Ko-fi

Mortuary Files

 

I put on the locket

that I bought when my parents nearly divorced

and mourned you

although you had not died

 

I don’t rank the people I’ve lost

they’re just an archipelago of scars in my mind

 

In no particular order:

 

There’s K, the former stripper and aerialist

full of storms and fighting wit and pain

 

O, wry and small and deep-voiced

with beautiful insincere eyes

 

A different K, her fragrant hair like a summer storm

and shifting brown eyes

and heady cigarette kisses, her grey halo

 

T and L, a milkmaid and a fairy tale princess

one a competitor and one

a lost love

 

S, with hard firm eyes and

strong opinions;

tea, and tobacco, and a warm laugh

 

Some were friends, some were lovers—

or something like it—

 

I haven’t counted every fallen robin

(to steal from a better poet)

but the strafes and near misses score my heart anyway

 

And now my regard and respect for you

adds a headstone to the rows

perhaps I should have known better, but

 

whisper networks are like telegrams were; they travel fast

but sometimes, not fast enough

and when you need them, they’re too late

 

So the things that other people knew before

are things that I’m only learning now

 

If I’d known them then, would I ever have

seen the magic in your words

or just the plywood and glue and nails and paint

of hollow setpieces

 

Burning it all wouldn’t scour your fingerprints from my clay

I guess I’ll forever have to say “good art, bad person”

but now I wonder how good the art really was in the first place

 

All the awards in the literary world

don’t add up to therapy

 

(and on its own, therapy

Is not always good, or enough)

 

I don’t need for the people I love and admire

to be perfect

or even to know who I am

 

But I wish I’d trusted the madwoman in the attic

because you made your father’s mistake

and I guess it

Runs in the Family

 

I have my own stories and poems to write

and a beautiful new child to attend to

and beloveds

and friends

and an art collective

and an online community

and an immense, overflowing stack of books to read

by people that aren’t you

 

but the people I’ve lost pull me back to

grey and ashes and sepia

 

and sometimes, it’s important

to count what has been lost.

An Open Letter to Neil Gaiman

The day I found out what you did

Silver lockets might as well have been

 piles of ash flowing between my fingers

Nothing was beautiful 

in my basement,  I curled up on a beanbag chair full of stuffing 

And slept until it hurt less 

It wasn’t just the assault allegations

Those were pretty bad, sure

It was the quiet whispers and casual mumbles that 

You’d slept with fans 

Young ones

And even if everything was above board, I couldn’t help but think

If I had lined up for hours or run into you in the right kind of club

With padded walls and restraints on the benches

Would you have ignored me because I wasn’t pretty enough

Or worse, paid attention because I was

We are not strawberries to snatch from the roadsides of life 

And now that I am older and past what Orwell called “the wild rose beauty” stage

And I am a rosehip 

If ever I was a rose, which is doubtful

All I can see are the lines and rows of beautiful tough mysterious Fey young women that 

Keep cropping up in your work 

and kept swirling in adoring eddies around your table at conventions 

You knew better 

You had the power 

You could crush any one of them in the palm of your hand 

Who would believe a young nanny over a famous author 

You used to be the person I most wanted to have lunch with 

Now all I want 

Is to write better than you.

I may never be as famous; odds of that are high and stacked against me 

But I can push myself harder and climb higher and feel something deeper 

And if I can’t, well,

I’m at least going to try.

Update

Hi! I'm not dead! In fact, the opposite. My wife had our baby, and he's beautiful and perfect, but also keeping me *very* busy. We're also planning to move soon. Yes, with a new baby.

Add to this - my brain is like, what if we had a bunch of new plot ideas for romantasy projects?

me: but brain, we have editing to do on our existing projects. Like Prairie Weather, and The Foundling City, and Monsters and Fools... brain: BUT NEW SHINY SPARKLIES!

Where are y'all at?

GIF by kuro-von-shitsuji

***

A writer and professional freelance editor, Michelle Browne lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partners-in-crime and their cats. She is currently working on the next books in her series, other people's manuscripts, knitting, jewelry-making, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

Find her all over the internet: *Website * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * Amazon * Tumblr * Mastodon *Facebook * Medium * Twitter  * OG Blog* Instagram * Paypal.me * Ko-fi

Why Haven't I Posted Since July?

 Well - to be honest, I've been too busy!

 a) writing the Prairie Weather trilogy, which is now finished and on submission to publishers - wish me luck! It's 155K, and if you want to beta-read it, pick your favourite social media and contact me. 

and b) - finally, finally, finishing Monsters and Fools, the sequel to the Underlighters. That's right, that sequel. Yes, it really did take ten years. I'm also 13K into The Foundling City, the final book in the trilogy, and given the outline, I'm expecting to be finished that book some time in 2024. 

c) We're preparing for our first child (River, due in early March!) and I have no idea what that will do to my writing or publishing schedule. 

d) I haven't been writing many essays for a while, but I HAVE been posting lots of snippets and updates over on my Tumblr! Tumblr is definitely my most active platform, and it's unquestionably one of the best ways to contact me these days, as well as the best way to find out what I'm working on. 

So, yeah! Hit me up over there, or possibly on Facebook. I may get back to writing essays in the new year as well, but I plan to spend a bunch of time actually reading political theory, which may also result in a lot more essays and thinkpieces. We'll see! 

***

A writer and professional freelance editor, Michelle Browne lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partners-in-crime and their cats. She is currently working on the next books in her series, other people's manuscripts, knitting, jewelry-making, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

Find her all over the internet: *Website * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * Amazon * Tumblr * Mastodon *Facebook * Medium * Twitter  * OG Blog* Instagram * Paypal.me * Ko-fi