Stardust Dispatch #3: Hey Look, a Newsletter from Mia!

It's been... a while! I keep a paper journal just as consistently. In my journal, whenever there's a long gap in months (years) between entries, I slap down a big piece of decorative washi tape and write

TIME PASSES

In my glitteriest, most colorful marker. It lends a nice sense of narrative continuity and intention to what might otherwise be incorrectly labeled as "inconsistency" or "forgetfulness."

At any rate, it's been a bit since my last post here. Nearly 3 years, in fact. I could give you an extended summary, but we'll save all that for the readers of my future biography and for now we'll just say: time passed. Some good, some bad. Like the rest of you, I've been struggling with the world in its current state, trying to create art, build worlds, staying connected to people I care about, keeping my pets alive, my garden thriving, et cetera.

And all of that stuff is interesting to me but probably not something that needs to go out to everyone's inboxes with any form of regularity. But today—oh today! I've got a bunch of fun news for you:

Item one: I HAVE A NEW BOOK COMING OUT NEXT YEAR!!!

It's called The Heresy of Thieves and it's the first book in my new epic fantasy Spellfall series. This is my debut novel, and the work of many years. Here's the blurb from my publisher's website:

The three kingdoms of Yvaelen are suffering a crisis of faith. After a thousand years of prosperity and effortless magic by the grace of Vael, the witch-god who sacrificed a paradise so that Her people could reign supreme, the land is plunged into chaos when magic abruptly stops working and prayers to Vael go unanswered. In Spellfall’s wake, a young king, an urchin in disguise, and a disgrace of a knight must rescue Yvaelen, and themselves, from betrayal and monstrous ambition.

I am so, so proud of this world, y'all, and so excited to share Yvaelen and all its people with you. I'll post the cover, pre-order links, special subscriber goodies, and more here in the months to come, so stay tuned!

Item two: Starting this month, I'm rebooting the Breakfast Serial

But monthly instead of weekly. As always, the recipes will be human-written and fully tested by me in my home kitchen before I post them. The ongoing story is also fully human-written. (It's weird to have to call this out, but it's 2025 now and robot puke is everywhere masquerading as 'content.' Fuck that.) Look for the next delicious entry in your inbox in late September!

Item three: I've got two events coming up at Flights of Foundry!

Writers: have you heard of Flights of Foundry? You probably have because it's super cool and amazing and a really good time! This is the entirely online conference's SIXTH YEAR! The programming is off the hook, they have so many incredible panels, readings, and chats happening! Check out Flights of Foundry's website for registration details and more information.

I'll be helping to kick off the late-night portion (West Coast) of the conference first with a reading and then moderating a panel I'm really excited about: Craft Rituals. What little rituals do you do before you start putting pen to paper?

>> Link to my FoF schedule <<

Item four: Sweet Tunes

Lastly, I want to give a shout-out to the music makers out there who are cutting through the AI noise to provide beautiful, delightful human-created DJ sets for us to work to. I stumbled across some of these DJs a few months ago when I was desperately trying to find longer playlists that weren't variations on "Lofi AI beats to lobotomize yourself to."

Caroline Chang aka the Techno Llama delivers consistently fun, joyous mixes and does cool stuff like DJ for her rock-climbing friends on top of mountains.

Login.jp hosts a variety of DJs spinning sets in places all over Japan, such as a stationary shop or a glassblower's workshop. Their goal is to document and archive unique Japanese cultural experiences through music and it's sooo cool! Be sure to read the descriptions for each set to get more context about the setting.

Alright, I'll wrap it up there for now! Look for the Breakfast Serial in a couple of weeks and a regular update post in early October. In the meantime, I'm off all Meta products entirely, and abandoned Twitter's carcass the day Elon bought it to turn it into his personal horrific puppet show, so you can find me casually posting pretty much exclusively on Bluesky now if you'd like to give me a follow.

Take care of yourselves and each other, friends! Wishing you a delightful September,

Mia V. Moss