Notes from Shieldbreakerland, Summer 2026

A few things to share about Readercon and Holiest of Cities and what comes next.

Hi.

First things first: if you’re reading this? Thank you. Whether you’ve been reading my work since I joined this platform in September 2024 or you just showed up this week for whatever reason. I appreciate you. You’re fucking great.

Boston wasn’t ready…wait what’s Burlington?

Last weekend, I dragged my wife and toddler to a hotel half an hour north of Boston for my first ever convention. Readercon35 was a fucking blast. Getting to spend actual time in the same room as James Worth and M.A. Knight and Victoria and Trevor Cohen and Ichor and Embers and Lyndsey Resnick—not to mention the incomparable Inzani D'Arpeggio, who organized the whole adventure—was…know what? restorative, is what it was. There is a community here, built around us, across two or three generations of writers and a belief in building each other up to build ourselves up, and we got the chance to put that philosophy into action for a couple days, and it was goddamn magical. We’re gonna have to do it again some time. Especially now that I know there’s karaoke at these things!

Now, a little business…

When I first released The Last of the Etela, I promised everyone who made a purchase and showed me the receipt a comped year on this publication. Last year, it was because I figured it was a good deal for everyone—and I still think that, so I’m going to do it again, but now it’s a little bit more because I’d rather have less of your money go to me and nothing go our dear, dear friends Chris and Hamish. Such lovely human beings. They deserve so much less of your money, and I’m here to do my part. Buy a paperback copy of either Book One ($13.49 plus $5 worldwide shipping) or Book Two ($14.99 plus $5 worldwide shipping), or buy e-books of both of them for $4.99 each, and DM me a receipt, and I will gift you a year’s subscription (worth $45).

Which is going to count for something, frankly, because some more stuff is going behind the paywall this weekend.

All of Book Two, for starters.

And all of the Live chapter readings I’ll be doing starting (check’s calendar) this week! Wednesdays at 1pm Eastern after the kid passes out, I will be reading a chapter a week of Book Two for your viewing pleasure (and, more importantly, to give you a demo of the proper pronunciations of all the character names).

And I want you all to be able to see this stuff! I want you to get the satisfaction of seeing me stumble over my own sentences forty minutes into a fifty-seven-minute-long chapter and wonder out loud why I didn’t make them all shorter.

I want you to see my wife’s exquisite taste in floating bookshelves.

I want you to be able to access things like my recounting of the time I fell in the East River and my eventual (hopefully) live performance of the most ridiculous song I’ve ever ‘written,’ a spoof mashup of the Flintstones and Fiddler on the Roof that involves maybe a few too many instances of the phrase “yabba dabba do.”

And I want you to be able to access these things without giving Chris Best any of your hard earned money. I want that for all of us.

What’s next in the Shieldbreaker Saga?

A year ago, I promised a few people an Uskol and Uskol spinoff. Garen Glazier, among other people, has been very patient with me, and this month I finally figured out how to really make it work. Think Superbad but set in, you know, my universe. With desert Vikings or whatever we’ve decided these people are.

So…the next project, before I get deep into Book Three, is going to be another prequel novella called Uskol & Uskol to pair with Daughters of Vei and possibly fill out with a few more short stories for release…soonish. I need to write the thing first.

And when have done that, and it’s time for me to drop the chapters, those of you who have already bought your books and have your comped years will get to see them up close and personal ahead of time.

You heard me. Secret novella. I just decided on this in the heat of the moment (and lack of air conditioning) as I write this post.

Beyond that, some time in 2027, Kareva and company will return with a (very, very literal) vengeance. A down payment has been made, after all. The Blood Goddess will have her blood. And so will you.

See you Wednesday. TS