Speculation, Fact and Fiction

I was trying to get up to 50K written in 2 weeks (for reasons, and I succeeded), but I didn't have enough brain to write my book, so I asked for fic prompts and someone suggested a Kpop Demon Hunters prompt of "How Sussie ended up with Derpy's hat" and I thought, I can do that!

In an ideal world, you would go read this over at my Patreon and become a member there if you're not already, but nobody's going to strike you down for reading it here. :)

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2025 has been quite a year, the second half being a distinct improvement on the first. The first six months saw various troubles come my way, including a) the threat of redundancy for me and my Cardiff colleagues; b) my brother having a serious stroke; c) the Supreme Court changing the meaning of the Equalities Act to the opposite of that intended by its authors, and the EHRC turning that up to 11; and d) the roof having to be removed from my house and rebuilt, due to a design flaw in its construction.

On these various fronts - work, family, societal, domestic - 2025 took quite a scunner to me, and the feeling's been mutual. However, the second half has mitigated some of these issues. The threat of redundancy passed, at least for me; my brother is recovering, although it's a long road; the EHRC appears to have overreached itself and its more radically exclusionary policies are getting some pushback, though we're currently in a very fragile place and the country is being kept in a perpetual ferment against imaginary enemies, of whom I am but one; and the roof situation is (almost) resolved, with the scaffolding coming down just yesterday.

Nevertheless, I needed a holiday, so when my daughter told me that she'd be away for Christmas I saw the opportunity to come to Japan on my own for a couple of weeks, which is where I am now - staying, for the moment at a friend's flat in Akasaka. The area is full of embassies (my friend and her husband are both translators/interpreters among other things, so it's handy for work) and the new Prime Minister lives about 10 minutes' walk away, so it's quite a swanky area, though the swank is mostly hidden behind high walls and fences.

Coming to Japan these days is in large part about seeing friends. I took Naoko and Eric, the flat owners, to dinner on the first night, and the next day went to a lovely party at Miho's, where I discovered that my Japanese is still good enough to have good conversations, and even (like everyone else) to make a little speech, even if my jetlagged appetite wasn't quite up to making the most of the goodies begroaning the table.



Yesterday I took a side trip to Kawagoe in Saitama - just a 45 minute train from Ikebukuro - which contains a district known since the early Edo period as 'Koedo' or 'Little Edo'. If you're based in Tokyo it's probably the easiest place to get to if you want to see 'old-time' Japanese shops and houses, which escaped the various depredations of the twentieth century. It's also a good place to buy a pickled cucumber, as I did in honour of former tenant Yuko, whose grandfather (I think it was) used to be a cucumber farmer in the area.



Kawagoe seems to be the kind of place that everyone knows about, but despite (or because of) being so easy to get to surprisingly few Tokyo-ites have actually visited, and I will be recommending it highly to my friends, as I do to you.

This is my first time in Japan in December, so I'm not sure it's a fair comparison, but I've been struck by the relative sparcity of tourists. In particular, there are very few Chinese here, no doubt in large part because the Chinese government (which has taken offence at some of the new PM's more combative remarks) has discouraged people from visiting. It's not quite 2022 levels, but this is the first time in a long time - certainly in Tokyo - that I've see so few foreigners, other than in the mirror.

Then to the 'Blue Cave' illuminations in Harajuku/Shibuya, where I met up with Yoshiko, who translated my book into Japanese, before going with her to meet her publisher, Manabe, in the fanciest tonkatsu place I've ever seen, The Pretty Pork Factory - with an extensive menus that allows you to choose the breed of pig and the cut of meat, for an experience of fine-tuned gourmandism.



As you'll have noticed, there's no escaping Christmas in this non-Christian country, even if you wished to. I've been Whamageddoned several times, and in Kawagoe I was even treated to Noddy Holder telling me that it was Christmas at the top of his voice, not far from this fish and chip van. Not that I've any objection!

Some news:

* The Murderbot and fantasy novel Humble Bundle has returned for two days. The charity donation is still World Central Kitchen:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/martha-wells-murderbot-and-more-tor-books-encore


* I'll be co-guest of honor with John Picacio at AggieCon 55 on January 30-February 1 2026 in College Station, TX.

https://www.aggiecon.net/


* Also you can preorder Platform Decay, the next book in The Murderbot Diaries, at whichever retailer you prefer, and it will be out on May 5, 2026. Published by Tor Books, cover art by Jaime Jones, edited by Lee Harris.


https://bookshop.org/p/books/platform-decay-martha-wells/8cf1662cf8bf8d15?ean=9781250827005&next=t

The truth is many of you have seen this before, but somehow I haven't *blogged* about it, so I'm doing a COVER REVEAL today! Muahahahah!

I would like to introduce you to the cover art for BONE & BLOOD, my upcoming retelling of the fairy tale Snow White, Rose Red. Dun dun dunnnnnnn!!!!!



LET ME TELL YOU THE STORY OF THIS COVER ART. :D

Cover designer Ravven, whose work I absolutely adore, did this as a pre-made cover. I saw it about 18 months ago now and I went OH. MY. GOD. I KNOW WHAT THIS COVER WANTS AS A STORY!

"BUT NO," I said to myself. "YOU ALREADY HAVE SO MANY PREMADE COVERS YOU HAVEN'T WRITTEN STORIES FOR! BE BRAVE, CATIE. STEP AWAY FROM THE COVER ART."

"but snow white, rose red," it whispered to me.

"AWAY, TEMPTATION!" I cried. "AWAY! SOMEONE ELSE WILL BUY THIS MAGNIFICENT COVER AND DO SOMETHING COOL WITH IT!"

"but snow white, rose red," it whispered to me.

I was, however, very brave, and didn't buy it.

So it haunted me for weeks. WEEKS. Until I went back and looked and it hadn't been bought yet and I was like 'OKAY FINE I UNDERSTAND A SIGN FROM THE UNIVERSE WHEN I SEE ONE!'

And I bought it, because I love the Snow White, Rose Red fairy tale almost as much as I love Beauty and the Beast (and it is, of course, in the same vein at BatB!), and I knew exactly how it would tie into my Beauty and the Beast book, ROSES IN AMBER, and...it was fate, honestly. It was just fate. And I'm very excited about the book, which I think is a particularly juicy rendition of SWRR, so I'm looking forward to getting it out to people in just three months!

There is a story of a widow woman and her two daughters, Snow White and Rose Red, who were the most perfect and darling little girls who had ever lived.

This is not—quite—that story.

Wise women do not bargain with fair folk, but there is wisdom, and then there is desire. Born of dark magic to a widow willing to make any pact to become a mother, Chloe and Yara live in a borderland between what is real in the World, and what is not. Their gifts—to hunt, to nurture, to craft and to kill—are granted by the woodland they cannot pass beyond...until the price of their birth is called due, and the sisters are separated, one to be a queen, and the other, a soldier.

But as the untold dangers of power weave threads into their hearts, threatening corruption and the destruction of their home, it is not the help of a prince, or true love’s kiss that will defeat a malevolent force, but the bond of two sisters whose bone and blood foretell a future that no evil could anticipate.

BONE & BLOOD will be out on March 12, 2026! Preorder now! :D

(links are amazon affiliate)