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M.A. Carrick's Blog

January 24, 2025

Research reading: La Valencia del XVII, Pablo Cisneros

Last year I stopped posting to about what I’d been reading because it abruptly became All Research, All the Time for , and I couldn’t talk yet about what Alyc and I were working on. Then I could talk about it, but it didn’t make good fodder for the usual “here’s what I’ve been reading� posts, and I didn’t have the time or energy to work through the backlog to do the kinds of individualized book reports I did back in my days.

But this book gets a report, ...

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Published on January 24, 2025 00:14

December 4, 2024

Rook and Rose gets a special edition!

The news finally became public today: , a UK-based special edition publisher, will be putting out an illustrated hardcover edition of the entire Rook and Rose trilogy! New cover art, colored endpaper art, and black-and-white images throughout, with foil on the hard case, the whole shebang. Alyc and I are incredibly excited, and also we signed our names 4,725 in the last month, on tip-in sheets to be bound with the books.

Now, if you’re not already a Broken Binding subscriber, i...

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Published on December 04, 2024 15:53

November 11, 2024

M.A. Carrick rides again!

We are incredibly pleased to announce that, having not murdered each other over our first collaboration, we are venturing forth again with a new series: The Sea Beyond, a historical fantasy duology of scholarship, conquest, and faerie magic!

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In an alternate Spanish Golden Age, where the map becomes the territory and mapmakers are the architects of reality, the Council of the Sea Beyond has risen to unrivaled power, exploiting the world’s most precious resources for their own gain.


Determined ...


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Published on November 11, 2024 10:40

October 24, 2024

Behold: the Rook and Rose wiki!

A world as complex as the setting for the Rook and Rose trilogy contains a lot of information � and when there are two authors involved, you can’t just assume everybody will remember everything the same. That’s why Alyc and I got my husband to set up a private wiki for us, where we could keep track of the details.

It grew to be . . . rather comprehensive, let’s say. (As in, 190K words, which makes it essentially the fourth book of the series � and longer than any non-Rook and Rose novel I’ve eve...

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Published on October 24, 2024 06:48

September 21, 2024

Coming soon . . .

A black-and-white icon showing a ship sailing between two tall cliffs. Above are the stars, and below are lines in the water that might be tentacles . . .

The post appeared first on .

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Published on September 21, 2024 11:19

January 31, 2024

Awards 2023 Eligbility Post

Remembering what came out when, and which category it falls into, can be hard even for the people involved in writing, so we’ve compiled this list of award-eligible works from the past year for the upcoming season. The biggest one is obviously the completion of the Rook & Rose trilogy, but we think there’s a lot of great short and medium-length fiction as well.

As M.A. Carrick (pseudonym for Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms)

Eligible Series

Rook & Rose � comprised of (Jan 2021),...
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Published on January 31, 2024 09:00

January 30, 2024

Hugo nominations chance ending soon!

The recent news about extreme hinkiness in last year’s Hugo Awards (works ruled ineligible without the authors being notified or any reason given; questionable voting numbers; attendees� voting rights reportedly being reassigned to the convention committee) is deeply disturbing � me, I’m in favor of a Retro Hugo for 2023 in an upcoming year, since we already have that structure in place � but for this upcoming year, the more people who get involved, the better! If you want to nominate, you have ...

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Published on January 30, 2024 11:57

September 5, 2023

holy #$&!, we did it

The Rook and Rose pattern deck Kickstarter was a complete success. As in, we unlocked every single stretch goal, and raised nearly $3000 beyond the top one � a wonderful margin of safety against things like shipping costs increasing between now and when we deliver the decks.

Not gonna lie: before we launched this project, I was significantly worried that it would fail. I’ve run a successful Kickstarter before, but the goal for that one was a full order of magnitude smaller than this. $31,500 is ...

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Published on September 05, 2023 16:07

September 3, 2023

55 hours left in the Kickstarter + a new bonus!

I’ve got two days left at DragonCon and two and a half days left in the . Can I survive them both? 😛

banner for the Rook and Rose pattern deck Kickstarter

We’re down to 55 hours and counting, and Alyc has decided to throw one more temptation into the mix. We already had a stretch goal to make digital art for a Rook & Rose “card� (currently just over $500 away), and we decided a while ago that if we get to 400 backers we’ll print that in the deck (we’re currently at 373), but they announced this morning that if the Rook and t...

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Published on September 03, 2023 07:27

August 30, 2023

M.A. Carrick at DragonCon!

The two of us will be at DragonCon! If you’re going to be there, do look us up. We’ll be doing some signings together:

Time: Friday 2:30 p.m.
Location: Overlook Westin

Time: Friday 5 p.m.
Location: Vendor Hall Floor 1 Mart2, booth 1201

Time: Sunday 5 p.m.
Location: Vendor Hall Floor 1 Mart2, booth 1201

We’re also willing to sign outside of those times, since getting into the AmericasMart buildings can be a lengthy undertaking all on its own. I’m findable after my panels, if what you want signed ...

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Published on August 30, 2023 10:14