Meet the Billionaires

Welcome to the Stone Soup Weekly Digest! This is where I share what I'm up to and some of my favorite things from around the internet. Subscribe to Stone Soup to get this in your inbox every week.

Morocco Earthquake Relief

Over 8000 people died in a massive, destructive 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Morocco last Friday night. Here’s how you can offer some relief to those impacted:

• The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent provides aid and relief
• World Central Kitchen provides food
• CARE provides shelter for women, children, and disadvantaged groups
• Global Giving provides both food and shelter

Know Your Station Trade Paperback

KNOW YOUR STATION comes out in trade paperback in just a couple of short weeks! Liana Kangas and I are sharing some peeks behind-the-scenes on Instagram. For the next few days, we’ll introduce a few of the billionaires that live on THE FIRST RESORT, the space station where the story takes place. First up: Meet Manda Slotnik.

Follow me and Liana for more, and don’t forget to preorder your copy of KNOW YOUR STATION!

Tales From The Trunk 100th Episode

Hilary Bisenieks has a fantastic podcast called Tales From The Trunk, in which Hilary invites authors to come and share the work they've decided will never get published! It's a beautiful model for how a podcast can support and love a community, and the insights authors share there are uniquely deep and dazzling. The podcast's 100th episode is up today, in which I interview Hilary about what it's been like to create this incredible endeavor. Check it out!

Personal Canons Cookbook Highlight: Back to Hashwi

This week’s Personal Canons Cookbook author is Suzanne Walker. Suzanne is a Chicago-based writer and editor. She is co-creator of the critically acclaimed, award-nominated graphic novel Mooncakes (2019, Lion Forge/Oni Press). Her short fiction has been published in Clarkesworld and Uncanny Magazine, and she has published nonfiction articles with Uncanny Magazine, StarTrek.com, Women Write About Comics, and the anthology Barriers and Belonging: Personal Narratives of Disability.

Go read Suzanne’s essay and try her recipe for a savory rice dish with spiced meat, perfect for any occasion: Back to Hashwi.

WGA and SAG-AFTRA Strike News

Help Striking Workers receive unemployment Insurance

Sign the petition to allow workers striking in California to access unemployment insurance so they can strike and help us all have better working conditions.

Mini-Rooms and Why They’re a Problem

Over on The Wrap, Andi Ortiz breaks down the negative impact “mini-rooms” have had on the TV writing process. You can also check out more strike coverage from The Wrap here.

I’m Reading: Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott

‘Honey, I just want you to have everything you ever wanted.’ That’s what Jacy’s mom always told her. And Jacy felt like she finally did. Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy and her new husband, Jed, embark on their first road trip together to visit his father, Dr. Ash, in Michigan’s far-flung Upper Peninsula. The moment they arrive at the cottage snug within the lush woods, Jacy feels bathed in love by the warm and hospitable Dr. Ash, if less so by his house manager, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt.

But their Edenic first days take a turn when Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, vacation activities are scrapped, and all eyes are on Jacy’s condition. Suddenly, whispers about Jed’s long-dead mother and complicated family history seem to eerily impinge upon the present, and Jacy begins to feel trapped in the cottage, her every move surveilled, her body under the looking glass. But are her fears founded or is it paranoia, or cabin fever, or—as is suggested to her—a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside?

Barnes & Noble | Bad River Website | Local Library | Find an Indie Bookstore

Featured New Release: What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell

Best friends and high school seniors Sadie and Logan make their first mistake when they ditch their end-of-year field trip to the amusement park in favor of exploring some old, forgotten backroads. The last thing they expect to come across is a giant, abandoned corn maze.

But with a whole day of playing hooky unspooling before them, they make their second mistake. Or perhaps their third? Maybe even their fourth. Because Sadie and Logan have definitely entered this maze before. And again before that.

When they stumble on the corpses in the maze, identical to them in every way (if you can ignore the stab and gunshot wounds)—from their clothes to their hidden scars to their dyed hair, to that one missing tooth—they quickly realize they’ve not only entered this maze before, they’ve died in it too. A lot. And no matter what they try, they can’t figure out what—or who—is hunting them.

Barnes & Noble | Bad River Website | Local Library | Find an Indie Bookstore

If you’re a paying subscriber, come by the Stone Soup Supper Club for our weekly chat! I can’t wait to find out how you’re doing.

—Gailey