BR Kingsolver

Still Here

We're still dealing with a serious health issue in our family, and some days simply don't go according to plan.❤️

Thank you for bearing with me when I seem to disappear for long stretches. There are happier things to talk about this time, so let's get to them.

📚 Bubonicon Weekend
I recently made it to Bubonicon, Albuquerque's science fiction and fantasy convention, and had a great time browsing the dealer room, attending panels, and spending a little time surrounded by people who love speculative fiction as much as I do.

One of the highlights for me was meeting Patricia Briggs. I've been reading her books for years, so I brought along a few well-loved copies I've owned for a very long time and had the pleasure of getting them signed.

I was impressed with Patricia not only as an author, but as a person. She was warm, gracious, funny, and remarkably down-to-earth. It's always a pleasure when someone whose work you've admired for years turns out to be someone you're genuinely glad you had the chance to meet.

I also caught a panel featuring Patricia alongside Travis Baldree and Martha Wells. That's a pretty impressive collection of storytellers at one table!

🎓 Highly Educated
And speaking of accomplishments, Duke and Maeve have officially graduated from obedience school! 🎉

We now have certificates proving that both of our basset hounds know exactly what they’re supposed to do.

Whether they actually choose to do it is, of course, an entirely different story. 😂 I think what we call obedience school, they call "the sausage place."

They are remarkably pleased with themselves, though, and we’re proud of them. Apparently, the humans passed the course too.

📖 Writing Desk
And yes, I'm still working on The Path to Knowledge, the third book in Katy's story.

This book continues to take the scenic route. Life has kept me away from the writing desk more than I would like, and sometimes the words simply don't come as easily as I want them to.

So, the book isn't ready yet, and I'm not going to give you a publication date I can't promise. But I am working on it, and Katy's story is far from finished. 📖

🔮 Sneak Peek
You've been waiting patiently for Katy's next adventure, so here's a scene from the current draft of The Path to Knowledge.

An elegant dress. Dinner at an Italian restaurant. A night at the opera with a handsome man.

What could possibly go wrong? 😉

I was as nervous as a drug dealer in a police station. I had expected reactions from the people I knew and lived with, but the lack of reaction left me looking over my shoulder. Frau Buckner had trimmed my hair and pinned it up in a stylish chignon as though it were something she did for me every day. She also told me that the Master had said I didn’t need to call if I wasn’t coming home.

I asked Siobhan if she had told anyone who I was going to the opera with, and she said that Frau Buckner had asked, and Siobhan simply said, “Someone she met at the university.” No one had asked me, which I thought was kind of surprising. I didn’t know what people thought when I came down the stairs dressed like royalty in a movie and then went outside to sit on the bench next to the fountain in the little square in front of the Master’s house.

It was getting near sunset, but the blue Merino wool shawl Siobhan had loaned me was toasty warm and soft as baby hair. Master Matteo pulled into the square in a luxury German car. I opened the door and got in. He was dressed in a dark suit and was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome.

“You look lovely tonight,” he said.

The performance. Incredible. I couldn’t understand a word anyone said, but like Amelia told me, there was a scroll above the stage in English and in German. But I had never seen such a performance in my life. The costumes, the staging, the extravagant acting.

“Operas were written for the nobility, for kings,” Matteo said. “They were purposely over the top. Back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment. Men such as Mozart made their living by composing spectacles for kings.”

“I just always thought it was a bunch of fat ladies singing some kind of gibberish.” I shook my head. “I am a convert.”

We went to a bar afterward, quiet and elegant with a woman playing the piano softly in one corner. A man sitting alone between the front door and the kitchen appeared to take notice of us when we entered and continued to watch us as we were seated.

I had been trained to be aware of my surroundings. The tablecloth shielded my legs from sight, and I slipped my athame from its sheath, illusioned it, and slipped it inside the ruched top of my dress. We got up from the table and Matteo draped the shawl around my shoulders.

Matteo held the door for me, and I glanced back to see the man rise from his table. He was fairly ordinary-looking—slender, with dark hair, wearing a jacket but no tie.

A man was leaning on Matteo’s car, not watching us, but looking down at his feet. The man from inside followed us out the door. I caught movement to our right in my peripheral vision.

“Matteo, I think we should shield.” I wasted no time following my own advice, and felt him cast his own shield—around both of us. Although I appreciated the gallant gesture, there was no way I could use my knife while inside his archivist shield.

The man leaning on the car looked up. “Buonasera, Monsignor.”

My Italian was barely rudimentary, but I recognized what was said. Matteo answered him in rapid-fire Italian, and his tone wasn’t pleasant.

We were now surrounded by five men I could identify, their manner threatening.

“Matteo, drop your shield around me. I can defend myself,” I muttered.

He glanced at me and, I guess, saw my shield with his magic. His shield shrank to cover only him.

I stepped away from him, pulling the athame out of my bodice. In a low voice, I said in German to the man in front of us, “If you get blood on this dress, there will be hell to pay.”

A man on my left laughed and said in Italian-accented German, “Don’t you know it’s a sin to f**k a priest? Stupid whore.”

The man in front of us said something in Italian, and Matteo responded. Then the man behind us hurled some kind of magic at Matteo’s shield, which held. The man to my left moved toward me, an aura of flame surrounding him, and reached out with a hand wreathed in fire. He screamed when I sliced it off, and the flame died out as it fell to the ground. Blood sprayed everywhere, but my shield deflected it.

Everyone froze, staring at their buddy and me.

I hope you're enjoying these last weeks of summer and finding time to lose yourself in a good story or two.

Audiobook sale!

60% OFF Night Market I was blissfully ignorant of a book, usually translated into Human languages as The Gospels of Satan, until it was stolen from the Great Library. My twin sister, a Senior Scholar, showed up at my door and asked me to help her retrieve the cursed book. It's magical, priceless, and in the wrong h...

It's August, and for those who have an itch to travel and immerse yourself in a bit of fantasy before the summer ends, I encourage you to come to Bubonicon.

https://www.bubonicon.com/

Among the guests will be Patricia Briggs, Martha Wells, and Travis Baldree.

I don't know if George RR Martin will be there this year, but he's shown up for a book signing the past two years. Among the authors I've met there are Jane Lindskold, Connie Willis, Carrie Vaughn, and T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon). I'll also be there.

This is a small con that is always packed with stars.

Bubonicon 57 - Aug 21-23, 2026 New Mexico Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention

Happy book birthday to Katy!

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Listen on the go this summer!

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Dark Running is a Kindle Special in June for $2.99 in the U.S. Check your local store in other countries. A stand-alone, very dark fairy tale.

Dark Running: Exile of the Winter Court When Charles II kidnapped a Sidhe princess in 1680, her father didn’t send diplomats—he sent armies. The Fae stormed through the Veil, leveled cities, and rewrote history. Centuries later, Humans and Fae still share the Mortal Realm uneasily… and England never recovered its empire. , prefers t...

Add to your audio library! Ruby Road is 60% off list price until June 2, and you can also get another two books free!

60% OFF Ruby Road It had been thirteen years, but my heart skipped a beat. My brain was bursting with things I wanted to say& #8212;many of them contradictory& #8212;things I had thought I might say if I ever saw him again. So, I said nothing. He pulled a leather bag out of an inside pocket of his cloak, opened...

The past couple of years have been a little quieter on the publishing side than I would have liked. Some ongoing family health matters have needed my attention, and that has also meant I haven’t been able to send my newsletters as often as I used to.
But things are moving forward again, and I truly appreciate you for sticking with me during this time. 💛 It means more than you probably realize
📚 Big Change
I’ve been looking at how my books are reaching readers and making a few changes to expand where they’re available.
Over the next few months, several of my earlier series will be leaving Kindle Unlimited and becoming available more widely—through Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and libraries.
The series that will be transitioning out of KU include:
• Telepathic Clans
• Dark Streets
• Rift Chronicles
• Wicklow College
This change will take a little time to roll out, but it will make these books easier to find for readers who prefer different platforms or library access.
If you’ve been planning to read any of these through your KU subscription, now is the time to grab them before they move out of the program.
👉 Browse all the books at my Amazon Author Page