Well here’s some f*ckery as a bookseller I never thought I’d have to think about. Thanks to an excellent article by Hana Lee Goldin (aka Card Catalog on Substack), thought I better check in with Biblio to see what their policy was on trying to stop Anthropic and other AI entities from buying my books and destroying them. The answer was not great. Their initial response is to stop “bulk purchases” on my account, but they don’t define what that means. Just a heads up to other sellers out there to beware of emails requesting large purchases of your most obscure books. Protect them. 

Guess not everyone knows this is happening...disgusting. Shades of Fahrenheit 451 and Rollerball. Probably not an issue for the new Bindery offerings, but for anyone who would like to maintain literary history, best keep an eye out.

The latest sapphic book discourse is being treated like another fight over labels. Some authors argue a book should qualify as sapphic when a queer woman appears in it, even when a man occupies the central romantic relationship. Under this logic, an FFM or FFMM romance belongs under the sapphic label without clear disclosure of the men involved. A love triangle between two women and one man also qualifies, even when the woman chooses the man at the end.

This argument mistakes a character’s identity for a story’s center.

A bisexual woman does not stop being sapphic when she dates or loves a man. Her identity doesn’t change according to her partner. But a relationship between a woman and a man is not a sapphic relationship. A story centered on their romance does not become a sapphic romance because the woman has loved women, wants women, or identifies as bisexual.

Both statements need to remain true at once.

Sapphic is an umbrella. The word includes lesbians, bisexual and pansexual women, queer women, and some nonbinary people whose identities and relationships fit under it. Sapphic is not interchangeable with lesbian. Sapphic also doesn’t mean any story where a woman experiences attraction to another woman at some point.

The umbrella should stay wide. The center still needs to remain clear.

The question isn’t whether a bisexual woman belongs in the sapphic community. She does. The question is whether the book centers sapphic desire, intimacy, or partnership in a meaningful and sustained way. Who receives the emotional development? Which relationship drives the plot? What does the marketing promise? Which love story reaches the ending? Those answers tell readers what kind of book they are buying.

Why the label matters

A label shapes attention. Attention shapes sales, reviews, awards, recommendation lists, bookstore placement, and which authors receive another contract.

Publishing doesn’t distribute those opportunities equally. The 2023 Diversity Baseline Survey found 72.5% of workers across U.S. publishing, review journals, and literary agencies identified as white. Only 5.3% identified as Black. The Authors Guild’s 2023 income survey found full-time Black authors earned a median of $2,412 from their books in 2022. White authors earned a median of $10,985. White respondents were also 36% more likely than Black respondents to be traditionally published.

Those numbers give this label dispute material stakes.

The conversation of who is and isn’t sapphic is also happening in mostly white spaces; let's start there. When whiteness already controls most publishing decisions, we need to examine who receives space inside a category built around marginalized love stories. If “sapphic” becomes a loose marketing word for any book containing a queer woman, stories centered on men gain access to sapphic shelves, lists, subscription boxes, awards, and reader communities.

Meanwhile, books centering two Black women still fight to be treated as romantic, desirable, and broadly marketable. The barriers rise higher for dark-skinned, fat, disabled, trans, working-class, and masculine-presenting Black women. Their stories face pressure to prove an audience exists. A male-centered book with a white, conventionally attractive bisexual heroine enters the same limited category and receives the benefit of familiarity. The industry gets queer visibility without giving up men as the assumed romantic center.

This is where white supremacy and heteropatriarchy reinforce each other.

Whiteness receives the greatest chance of being treated as universal. Black sapphic desire gets treated as niche. Conventional femininity becomes the easiest form of queerness to sell. Men remain central, even inside a category readers seek out because they want stories where men are not the romantic destination.

Then the industry points to a few visible queer women and calls the category inclusive.

Presence is not power

GLAAD counted 85 Black characters among 489 LGBTQ characters in television programming from June 2024 through May 2025. Black characters made up 17% of the total, a drop of ten characters and two percentage points from the prior study.

A character count still does not answer the questions readers need answered. Whose love story drives the plot? Who receives tenderness, interiority, and sexual agency? Who gets desired without becoming a lesson for someone else? Who reaches the ending alive and loved?

Publishing statistics present the same problem. The presence of queer women does not tell us whether a book centers queer women’s relationships. A bisexual heroine does not turn every relationship she enters into a sapphic one. Treating her identity as a shortcut around accurate marketing reduces bisexuality to a label publishers pull out when useful.

An FFM or FFMM romance needs honest language

An FFM or FFMM relationship involving queer women contains sapphic attraction. The women in the relationship might share a sapphic bond. The characters might belong to the sapphic community. None of this makes “sapphic romance” an adequate standalone label for a story where a man participates in the central relationship.

Readers need language such as bisexual polyamorous romance, mixed-gender queer romance, FFM romance, or FFMM romance. Authors should state the relationship structure in the marketing. Readers then get to choose the story they want with accurate information.

This is not a purity test. This is genre clarity.

A reader seeking an FFM romance deserves to find one. A bisexual reader seeking a story about a woman loving people of more than one gender deserves to find one. A lesbian or sapphic reader seeking a romance centered only on women and nonbinary people deserves to find one too.

Hiding the man from the description because “sapphic” attracts a particular audience treats sapphic readership as a market to access, rather than a community whose expectations matter. It also reproduces an old heteropatriarchal assumption. Even in a space named for desire outside men, men still receive entry without announcement.

If a man belongs to the central romantic unit, say so.

When the love triangle ends with a man

A queer love triangle between two women and one man might explore bisexual identity, compulsory heterosexuality, grief, confusion, or desire. Such a story has value. It might be bisexual women’s fiction, queer fiction, or a mixed-gender romance. The right description depends on the plot and ending.

But when the central character chooses the man, marketing the book as a sapphic romance creates a false promise. The woman remains sapphic and the ending doesn’t make her straight. But it is not a sapphic relationship if the romance delivered to the reader is still a woman-and-man romance.

This distinction matters because queer women have spent generations watching attraction between women framed as temporary, immature, experimental, fetishized, tragic, or less substantial than a relationship with a man. A sapphic label followed by a man-centered ending repeats this pattern inside the category meant to resist it.

Readers are not objecting to bisexual women. They are objecting to a marketing promise where sapphic desire becomes the detour and a man becomes the destination.

Why this is lesbophobic

Calling a man-centered romance sapphic asks lesbians and other readers who seek stories beyond men to accept male centrality everywhere. Their request for accurate labeling gets recast as exclusion, jealousy, or biphobia. This framing treats a boundary around a story category as hostility toward a human identity.

Lesbians already live under the demand to leave space for men. Culture treats lesbian desire as negotiable and lesbian boundaries as cruel. The number of times in my life that a man has said “are you sure?” or “if you change your mind.” The belief that every category must include men carries the same demand into books. A label built around women and nonbinary people loving one another loses meaning once male-centered romances claim equal ownership of it.

Saying so does not turn sapphic into a synonym for lesbian. It protects a shared category where lesbians, bisexual women, pansexual women, queer women, and some nonbinary people find stories centered on love and desire beyond men. Also though I do not feel it needs to be stated, I will say that because trans women are women, I don’t feel the need to make a distinction between cisgender and transgender women in this article.

Why this also erases bisexuality

Bi-erasure often works by assigning a bisexual person a new identity based on a current partner. A bisexual woman dating a man gets called straight. A bisexual woman dating a woman gets called lesbian. Both readings erase her full identity.

Mislabeling books creates a related distortion. It collapses the difference between who a bisexual woman is and what kind of relationship a story centers. The heroine becomes a marketing device. Her bisexuality gets stretched across every romantic configuration until words such as sapphic, queer, bisexual, and mixed-gender stop communicating distinct information.

Accurate labeling respects bisexuality because it names bisexual experience directly. “Bisexual women’s fiction” is not a lesser category. “Mixed-gender romance with a bisexual heroine” is not an insult. “Queer FFM romance” tells readers more than “sapphic” ever would. Clear language gives bisexual stories their own shape rather than forcing them to borrow a label whose central promise differs from the story being sold.

A bisexual woman in a relationship with a man still belongs in sapphic community. Her relationship with him is not sapphic. Refusing to confuse those truths is not bi-erasure. Confusing them leaves bisexuality less visible and less understood.

Keep the umbrella wide and the center clear

Sapphic should remain broad enough to hold the range of people who live, love, and identify beneath it. Trans women belong. Bisexual and pansexual women belong. Black women belong. Disabled women belong. Nonbinary people with a relationship to the term belong. He/him lesbians belong, and trans men who identify as sapphic belong. No one needs to narrow sapphic into another word for lesbian.

The category still needs a center, though.

For a book marketed as sapphic, sapphic desire or relationship should drive the emotional arc. The story should give this relationship sustained development and meaningful page time. The marketing should disclose a man’s role when he belongs to the central romantic structure. If the heroine ends with a man, the label should prepare readers for the romance the book delivers.

This standard does not police identity. It asks publishers and authors to describe their books honestly.

Book labels direct money and attention. In an industry where white workers hold most gatekeeping roles and Black authors earn far less from their books, loose labels do not produce neutral outcomes. They allow the stories closest to whiteness and heterosexual convention to occupy more space while Black sapphic love stays underfunded, underpromoted, and treated as narrow.

Sapphic means something. Protecting its meaning protects bisexual inclusion, lesbian boundaries, reader consent, and the marginalized love stories the category exists to center.

Sources

• GLAAD, “Representation of Black LGBTQ Characters,” Where We Are on TV 2024–2025: https://glaad.org/whereweareontv24/representation-of-black-characters/

• Authors Guild, “Key Takeaways from 2023 Author Income Survey”: https://authorsguild.org/news/key-takeaways-from-2023-author-income-survey/

• Publishing Perspectives, “Diversity in US Publishing: The New Lee & Low Report”: https://publishingperspectives.com/2024/02/diversity-in-us-publishing-the-new-lee-low-report/

• GLAAD, “Erasure of Bisexuality”: https://glaad.org/bisexual/bierasure/

It’s time to refresh your bookish content! 🎨📖 All 56 September Canva Mockups are officially available for The First Editions to download NOW!

Whether you’re creating Bookstagram posts, book reviews, TBRs, monthly wrap-ups, reading challenges, book club content, or social media graphics, these ready-to-use Canva mockups are designed to make creating your September content easier and more fun. 💙

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Thank you for being part of The First Editions and supporting everything we’re building for our book-loving community! 📚💙

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Ready to refresh your September bookish content? Your September Canva Mockups are officially available! 🎨📖

Whether you’re creating Bookstagram posts, book reviews, TBRs, reading wrap-ups, book club content, or cozy reading graphics, these templates are ready to help make your content stand out. ✨

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Our discussion of BETWEEN TWO FIRES featuring Christopher Buehlman himself is next Wednesday!

here’s the link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83208780010?pwd=Cr45KvR9XEJ0yXZYaIK1ptfajvdvZb.1

see you next week 🫡

Ed and Will

September Book Club Pick: Until the Clock Strikes Midnight

August is almost over, which means it is time to prepare for diving into our September book club pick, which is Until the Clock Strikes Midnight by Alechia Dow–a queer YA fantasy romance that remixes the classic fairytale formula!

Darling is the most talented—and unusual—Guardian to get a chance at winning the coveted once-in-a-generation Mortal Outcome Council mentorship. Getting the spot would mean having the opportunity to shape the future happiness of all mortal realms—if she succeeds at her first assignment, Lucy Addlesberg. Darling thinks it’ll be an easy razzle-dazzle job… until she actually meets Lucy. Her life is a complete mess, from her failing bookshop in her downtrodden village to her doomed flirtation with the princess of Lumina. But if there’s one thing Darling’s good at, it’s a makeover.

Calamity is the most talented—and arrogant—Misfortune of his class. It’s his job to save mortals from their own terrible decisions made in the pursuit of the mythical "Happily Ever After." When Calam is granted a shot at the Mortal Outcome Council mentorship, he thinks his dreams are finally coming true. But first, he must pass the test. It should be easy—Lucy Addlesberg has been unfortunate for years. All he has to do is continue her string of bad luck so she can finally come to terms with reality and settle for a safer, more logical path in life. Yet when he arrives, he finds that Lucy has a Guardian assigned to her too—a chipper overachiever who is as colorful as the magic pouring from her glittery wand.

To thwart each other, Darling and Calam insert themselves into Lucy’s life posing as a betrothed couple. As they try to guide her down what they each see as the best path for her, they start questioning their roles and ultimately what they truly want for themselves... and if those feelings of loathing they have for each other might actually be something more like love.

Casual discussion will take place all month long on Discord in the #until-the-clock-strikes-midnight channel. Usually, our live wrap up discussions will be the last Thursday of the month, however, I am going to be in Bosnia on a pilgrimage during that date this month, so I am tentatively pushing UTCSM wrap up to Thursday, October 1st, at 6pm pacific/9pm eastern. I say tentatively because that is the second day of school for me and as a new admit to my major, I don’t know what my orientation/welcome week commitments will be, so it may get pushed to October 8th, but hopefully not!

If you’re intending to purchase a copy of this book, you can purchase through Bookshop.org by clicking the tagged book on this post–I receive a 10% commission for that book and any other book you purchase after clicking that link, and some of your money will also go to Bookshop’s indie bookstore fund, supporting independent bookstores across the US! There are also a couple copies available on Pango, including a very reasonably priced FaeCrate edition that is simply gorgeous. If you’re a Western Washingtonian, the Seattle Public Library has several dozen audiobook copies currently available (also! Fun fact! You can get a free SPL card online in most Western Washington counties! I know for sure King, Kitsap, Snohomish, Island, and Pierce, but others as well).

October Voting Options

Voting for our September selection is currently live over on our Discord in #voting-and-announcements! As always, I like to land on our books around a month in advance to allow for library waits, shipping time, and extra reading time if you want to start early. The wrap up discussion for this one will be back to our standard last-Thursday-of-the-month, aka October 29 at 6pm pacific. This book will also be our last book club read of 2026! We’’ll be taking November & December off, because the holidays are always chaotic, not to mention I prep and then run Disability December, will be prepping Read Disabled 2027, end of year wrapped content, and finals! But we’ll be back in 2027 and better than ever :)

With that out of the way, let’s get to our October Voting Options!

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Genre: YA fantasy

Representation: chronic pain (lived experience)

In Rynn’s town, the dead don’t stay dead. When the risen corpses known as Bone Houses begin to attack with a ferocity that threatens her home and family, Rynn must team up with Ellis, a traveling mapmaker, to journey into the mountains to find the source of the curse and destroy 

A Little Less Broken by Mariam Schembari

Genre: memoir

Representation: autism (lived experience)

One woman’s decades-long journey to a diagnosis of autism, and the barriers that keep too many neurodivergent people from knowing their true selves.

Accidental Demons by Clare Edge

Genre: middle grade fantasy

Representation: type 1 diabetes (lived experience)

When a young witch keeps accidentally summoning demons every time she has to check her blood sugar, she and her sister devise a plan: summon a special demon to monitor her blood sugar like a service dog! But when the summoning goes awry, they realize they may have bit off more than they can chew.

Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Genre: romance

Representation: PTSD, anxiety (lived experience)

When Ramona leaves the pop-star spotlight behind and enrolls in college at 26, the last things he expects is A-plus chemistry with her recently divorced psychology professor, but when a crisis brings them closer outside of class, they begin a tentative friendship amid an undeniable attraction.

Triptych by Karen Slaughter (Will Trent #1)

Genre: mystery/thriller, crime fiction

Representation: dyslexia

In the city of Atlanta, women are dying—at the hands of a killer who signs his work with a single, chilling act of mutilation. As the police engage in a frenzied chase to catch the killer, but Will Trent, a loser ex-con who stumbled onto the killer’s way may just hold the key to breaking the case wide open.

https://youtu.be/a1dxeHziRjQ

Hey Everyone!

I have my first long form video on YouTube! You can only view it if you have this link, it's not public, so just for you guys. I'm learning how to film and edit with an actual camera here, so....yikes lol. But I think it came out pretty good!

I will be making these monthly for the tier, if you have any suggestions or questions or want to be involved let me know!

Jen

Thank you to Harper Voyager, and HarperAudio for the ARC/ALC. Here is my genuine review: 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

🌶️🌶️? (One scene, not terribly graphic but still open door) 

Audra has two conflicting prophecies and her decision will have major ramifications. 

I enjoyed the story that focused heavily on dark academia, classes, “trials”, magic struggles, etc. It is not heavy on romantic elements, really doesn’t get there until the end. 

I think this book would be great for those who love a dark academia, fae, magic systems, chosen one, conflicting prophecies/destinies, demon/underworld, and not everything is at it seems. This is a dual narration (not a duet), so while you get two POVs, you mainly only get Audra’s. 

However, and it PAINS me to say this as someone who fell in LOVE with the cover, helped with the cover reveal and looked forward to the release — this book didn’t do it for me. 

I loved the author’s previous work (Lore of the Wilds and Lore of the Tides) but this fell flat for me. While I appreciate the beginning of the story, it’s like her “previous” life / backstory doesn’t matter as the story went on.

There was a TON of inner dialogue that made me feel like the pace of the novel was very slow and dragged along. While I appreciate going on Audra’s journey, I failed to be wholly captivated. 

The romantic element seems lackluster to me. I do NOT need smut to enjoy romance, so that’s not the problem, I feel as if their “attraction” happened so late in the book that it didn’t get much attention to be fleshed out (Read: I was not given enough interactions to be invested or believe in this unconventional romance). 

I almost DNF’d but after seeing SO MANY people enjoy the advanced copy, and from encouragement from friends, I decided to press through. Unfortunately, by 50% I really wasn’t interested and I never gained a spark back as I completed the book (no seriously, this pains me more than you know to say this but I have to be honest and probably be the odd person out).

I do STRONGLY encourage those who are interested to pick up this book ASAP. I think I am an anomaly in my thoughts. Many of my mutuals were OBSESSED and absolutely GAGGED at the end (I was not). 

Thank you Harper Voyager, Analeigh Sbrana (and NetGalley platform) for allowing me to read this advance copy. I appreciate it and will still recommend this book to the right reader. 

What happens when you combine science fiction, the American West, corporate power, super-soldiers, and a heroine who refuses to apologize for taking up space?

You get Cash and Gravity.

We sat down with author Perrin Pring to talk about the inspiration behind her genre-bending sci-fi western thriller, the real-life adventures that influence her writing, the evolution of Chevy Cole, the role of hope in dystopian fiction, and what it took to finally reach traditional publication after 17 years of querying.

Perrin's answers are honest, funny, thoughtful, and full of fascinating insight into the creative process behind Cash and Gravity.

So settle in, grab your favorite reading drink, and let's get into the conversation.

🎙️ Meet Perrin Pring

Before we dive into the questions, here's the elevator pitch:

Sci-fi. Western. Thriller.

Cash and Gravity follows Chevy Cole as she becomes caught in a dangerous corporate race that could determine humanity's future.

But this isn't simply a story about technology and corporations. It's also a story about hope, resilience, identity, morality, adventure, and what happens when women and everyone else are allowed to take up space.

🚀 The Conversation

1. For readers discovering your work for the first time, how would you pitch Cash and Gravity in just three words?

Perrin Pring:

“Ha, well I would probably say, sci-fi, western, thriller.”

Short, sweet, and somehow incredibly effective. 🤠🚀

2. Cash and Gravity blends science fiction, western elements, and high-stakes adventure. What first sparked the idea for this unique genre-bending story?

Perrin Pring:

“My husband and I were driving across the country right when Star Link was launching. It was September of 2020, and we had been living in remote areas where it was very hard to get reliable internet.”

During the drive, Perrin and her husband started talking about what it would mean if private corporations outpaced the government when it came to scientific advancement.

That conversation gave her the premise for Cash and Gravity but she knew a premise wasn't enough.

As they drove through Nevada, they began brainstorming characters who could inhabit that world.

“When the conversation ended, I thought, I could actually write that, and so I did, which I think surprised my husband since it had just been a fun way to pass some of the time on our multi day drive.”

And just like that, a cross-country road trip helped spark a novel.

3. Chevy Cole finds herself caught in a dangerous corporate race that could determine humanity's future. What can readers look forward to most when they meet her?

Perrin Pring:

Chevy evolved significantly throughout the drafting process, but one thing remained important: she gets to live her life on her own terms.

“The societal expectations of what a woman should or should not be doing don’t phase Chevy.”

Perrin emphasizes that the book isn't about explicitly discussing gender roles. Instead, it's about a woman doing stuff and letting readers draw their own conclusions.

And then there's Chevy's physicality.

Perrin reveals that one of the most surprising reactions she's received from readers involves Chevy being 6'2" and 225 pounds.

As Perrin points out, readers readily accept a pocket-sized fusion device capable of powering a spaceship but a large, physically imposing woman apparently requires more discussion.

Her takeaway?

“If we, as a society, are fine with envisioning technology that can change us, but not a world where women get to take up space, we probably need more sci-fi with women taking up more space.”

We couldn't agree more.

🎶 4. If Cash and Gravity had an official musical soundtrack or theme song to capture its gritty vibe, what would be the first track?

Perrin Pring:

When Cash and Gravity debuted, Perrin was listening to:

🎵 “Good Girls” — Josie Edwards
🎵 “Running with the Wolves” — AURORA

So those would be the starting points for the official Cash and Gravity soundtrack.

And honestly, that combination tells us quite a bit about the vibe we're getting into.

🌲 5. Your background is incredibly adventurous, from world-class kayaking to working as a park ranger. Have any of those real-life adventures directly inspired scenes, characters, or ideas in your fiction?

Perrin Pring:

Absolutely.

Perrin believes her hands-on outdoor experience translates directly into her ability to write action thrillers.

“I would rather learn from experience than spend hours researching something, which is probably why I don’t dare write historical fiction!”

Her outdoor experience gives her a foundation for writing action, movement, risk, and survival without relying entirely on research.

And considering how much adventure is packed into Cash and Gravity, that experience clearly comes in handy.

🥾 6. If you had to swap lives for a week with one of your characters, who would it be and do you think they'd survive a day in your boots as a park ranger?

Perrin Pring:

“I mean, I would love to get to be Chevy for a week. And she’d be fine as a park ranger, probably better than me.”

We're pretty sure Chevy would handle the job just fine.

Although we're now wondering what happens when you put a super-tough sci-fi heroine in charge of a group of tourists who ignored every park warning sign.

🚙 7. If you could take one character from Cash and Gravity on a real-world road trip through the American West, who would you choose and why?

Perrin Pring:

Dolon.

Why?

Because he knows all the weird hidey-holes and off-the-map places worth exploring.

And perhaps most importantly:

“He’s also probably the best driver out of everyone in the book, which is key when you are road tripping with someone.”

Best driver + secret locations + American West?

Sounds like a solid road-trip companion to us.

📱 8. If one of your characters could take over your social media accounts for a day, who would create the most absolute chaos?

Perrin Pring:

Again, Dolon.

But not because he'd post something outrageous.

Because he hates technology.

“He would do none of it, and I’d come back to a backlog, and probably a mess of things he touched and messed up.”

Honestly, that's somehow even more chaotic than an unhinged character taking over Instagram.

✍️ 9. What is a favorite writing snack, drink, or ritual that absolutely must be present to help you get words on the page?

Perrin Pring:

Interestingly, Perrin doesn't have one specific snack or drink that she absolutely needs.

Instead, she says time is the most important ingredient.

She's most creative when she has a large, uninterrupted block of time ahead of her.

Her least favorite writing interruption?

Having someone make plans in the middle of a day off.

“I want to wake up and just have nothing but unscheduled time to write.”

She can write without that uninterrupted time, but those long stretches are when she gets the most done.

🐈 And then there are the cats.

Perrin writes at home and has a cat bed on her desk.

Apparently, her cats have decided they're part of the writing team.

Sometimes they'll even run into her office when she's not planning to write, look at her, and jump into the bed.

Basically, the cats have appointed themselves writing supervisors.

🕯️ The candle ritual

Perrin also recently started incorporating candles into her writing sessions.

There's something about triggering her sense of smell while writing that helps her creative brain focus.

“When I have a candle going, my brain focuses in a way I can’t totally explain.”

Cats + candles + uninterrupted writing time?

We're listening.

📚 10. If you could spend a day browsing a bookstore with any author from history, who would you choose and why?

Perrin Pring:

“Maybe Octavia Butler? It’d be cool to see 2026 reading choices through her eyes.”

We would absolutely love to be a fly on the wall for that bookstore trip.

🛋️ 11. What does your perfect reading nook look like?

Perrin Pring:

The essentials?

🐈 Cats
🕯️ Candles
☁️ Soft things
📖 The ability to both sit up and lie down while reading
🌲 Wood paneling

Basically, a cozy little literary retreat with plenty of feline supervision.

🏢 12. The world of Cash and Gravity imagines six mega-corporations and their privatized armies replacing traditional government power. What fascinated you about exploring that kind of cutthroat, corporate future?

Perrin Pring:

Perrin began writing Cash and Gravity in 2020, during a period when the world felt particularly chaotic.

The book sold in 2025, which she says also felt meaningful.

While the story is often categorized as dystopian, Perrin doesn't particularly enjoy reading dystopian fiction herself because she finds it bleak and hopeless.

Instead, she wanted to create something different.

“I wanted to write a scary near-future world with hope because that is what I was looking for.”

At its heart, Cash and Gravity is about characters living in a difficult world while still being hopeful and doing their best.

Perrin wrote the story partly as a way to imagine a positive path forward during a period of massive, frightening change.

🏜️ 13. The American West plays a massive role in Cash and Gravity. How important is physical geography and environment when you're world-building?

Perrin Pring:

Very.

In fact, Perrin says she doesn't think she can not write about the West.

She's from the American West and has spent much of her career working there as a park ranger.

“Setting is everything to me.”

She says the West is simply part of her at this point, and it naturally finds its way into her writing.

⚔️ 14. You introduce a fascinating twist on military tropes with Launch Tech marines and female super-soldiers known as Aces. Without giving away spoilers, what was the inspiration behind this specific hierarchy and the mystery of a male Ace?

Perrin Pring:

Perrin has spent much of her career as one of the few women working in a very male-dominated field.

That experience influenced her interest in expectations surrounding gender and strength.

But she didn't want the message to be too obvious.

Instead, she flipped the traditional image of the super-soldier.

What if the truly badass super-soldiers were the smallest women?

That creates a complete reversal of the conventional focus on size and brute strength.

Then, as the Ace character evolved, Perrin found another opportunity to subvert expectations:

A small man in an elite group of fighters where, against all odds, he's the male Ace.

🎬 15. If Cash and Gravity were adapted for film or television, what is the number one thing you'd hope audiences would say afterward?

Perrin Pring:

Simply:

That it was fun.

Perrin wrote Cash and Gravity to be a page-turning escape.

She believes there is often a premium placed on literary fiction, with the assumption that literary books are more serious or important than genre fiction.

But she sees enormous value in escape especially now.

“Finding escape and hope is critical.”

If Cash and Gravity ever makes it to the screen, she hopes audiences walk away feeling like they had a fun, exciting escape from whatever was weighing them down.

🦸 16. What qualities make a flawed hero feel authentic, relatable, and human to you?

Perrin Pring:

Perrin loves a hero who is flawed but humble.

The difference between a flawed hero and a villain, in her view, comes down to the ability to recognize mistakes.

Everyone messes up.

But when a character can eventually recognize their mistake and admit it, that's when they become a hero.

“That’s what makes the character a hero as opposed to a villain.”

🧠 17. Why do you think speculative fiction is the perfect sandbox for testing human morality?

Perrin Pring:

Perrin compares science fiction to horror.

Horror allows us to safely experience fear.

Science fiction allows us to safely explore morality.

Speculative fiction can take real-world issues and remove them from the immediate political and emotional environment we're accustomed to.

Instead, readers encounter those issues in an entirely different society with different politics and different circumstances.

Perrin points to topics such as:

• Immigration

• Women's rights

• Climate change

• Other major social issues

When readers encounter those subjects in a fictional society, they aren't necessarily responding to the same immediate emotional triggers they experience when reading the news.

That distance can give us room to think.

“This lets you consider things in a new way.”

And that's one of the things speculative fiction does particularly well.

🏔️ 18. How has spending so much time in wild, untamed places influenced your creative imagination?

Perrin Pring:

For Perrin, the answer comes down to risk.

Doing difficult things outdoors, in places where actions have real consequences, gives her access to feelings she can't necessarily reach while sitting safely at home with her cats and candles.

She acknowledges that great writing can absolutely come from quiet offices and deep thinking.

But because she writes action-based thrillers, real-life experience with danger and risk mitigation helps her understand what those experiences feel like.

That knowledge then translates into:

Character mindsets.
Action sequences.
The emotional experience of risk.

👀 19. As both a park ranger and a writer, do you find similarities between observing nature and observing human behavior?

Perrin Pring:

Very much so.

Perrin once worked in one of the busiest parks in the country.

At one scenic overlook, she found herself watching the people more than the spectacular landscape.

And what she saw was extraordinary.

People experiencing the best and worst moments of their lives could occupy the same space.

She witnessed people contemplating suicide while a bride and groom nearby took wedding photographs.

Families took holiday-card photos beside people holding urns of ashes.

And during quiet moments alone at the overlook, Perrin sometimes felt like an explorer herself.

She describes her job as a park ranger, but also as a job of observation.

Those observations don't necessarily appear directly on the page as park-ranger stories.

Instead, they live somewhere in her subconscious until they eventually re-emerge in her fiction often in an entirely different sci-fi setting.

🎥 20. You have a background in both creative writing and screenwriting. When envisioning a massive action sequence, does your brain naturally view it through a cinematic lens?

Perrin Pring:

Probably but there's a history behind that.

Perrin began screenwriting in graduate school, where her professors identified her as talented at it.

She had never written a screenplay before 2021, and by 2022, she had one under contract.

Her manuscript writing journey began much earlier, when she was a child.

She also grew up going to Sunday movies with her family and watching plenty of blockbusters.

She suspects those movies influenced her from a young age and eventually translated into the way she approaches her manuscripts.

Then, when she discovered screenwriting, it felt natural.

“When I finally found screenwriting, I just made my way home.”

🌌 21. When creating a brand-new universe, do you start with characters, setting, technology, or something else?

Perrin Pring:

Most of Perrin's speculative fiction begins with the classic:

“What if...?”

For Cash and Gravity, the question was essentially:

What if corporations replaced governments when it came to scientific advancement?

But Perrin learned an important lesson from an essay by Orson Scott Card:

A premise isn't the same thing as a story.

The premise provides the what if.

The story comes from the characters and their conflict.

For Cash and Gravity, that meant building Chevy's struggles and conflicts around the premise.

“Cash and Gravity is a story because of Chevy’s conflict and struggles. It is not a story because I had a premise.”

That's a fascinating distinction for anyone who has ever had a great book idea but struggled to turn that idea into an actual story.

📖 22. As a reader, what books or authors helped shape your initial love of science fiction and storytelling?

Perrin Pring:

Perrin didn't begin seriously reading science fiction until her early twenties.

Before that, she was introduced to the genre through screen entertainment.

Her influences included:

⭐ The original Star Wars trilogy
⭐ Stargate
⭐ Firefly
⭐ Star Trek

Once she began reading science fiction, she dove into the classics.

But while she appreciated their importance to the genre, she often found that they lacked BIPOC and women characters with meaningful agency.

Then she discovered Octavia Butler's Kindred.

That experience made her want more.

Perrin says one of the things she loves about today's publishing landscape is the greater variety of voices and stories available to readers.

She still values the classics, but she didn't always feel represented in them.

That experience helped shape the kinds of stories she wanted to write:

Stories where all sorts of people get to do all sorts of things.

✍️ 23. What is the best or most unusual piece of writing advice that has stayed with you?

Perrin Pring:

When Perrin was in her early twenties, she met a man who insisted that the only way to be a writer was to wake up and immediately start writing.

No washing your face.

No eating.

No bathroom break.

Just write.

His dramatic explanation actually left Perrin wondering whether she could truly be a writer because she certainly wasn't prepared to sacrifice breakfast for the craft.

Years later, experience gave her a much healthier perspective.

She believes there are really only two things you need to do to be a “real” writer:

Read.

Write.

That's it.

You don't have to do either one constantly.

Life happens.

There will be periods when you're too busy, too emotionally exhausted, or simply unable to write.

But when you're capable, if you're reading and writing, you're a writer.

“It’s really not more complicated than that.”

Of course, your goals can make the journey more complicated.

Finishing a manuscript, finding an agent, and traditionally publishing are all different goals.

But regardless of the goal, Perrin's definition remains wonderfully simple.

If you're reading and writing when you're able, you're a writer.

🎉 24. What has surprised you the most about your publishing journey so far?

Perrin Pring:

Pretty much everything.

Especially since getting her agent.

But the most recent surprise has been the response to Cash and Gravity.

Perrin admits she expected people to hate the book not because she had any evidence that they would, but because she shares the same vulnerabilities as many creative people.

So receiving messages from readers saying they loved the book has been:

Surreal. Wonderful. And completely surprising.

🏆 25. Looking back at your evolution as a writer, what accomplishment are you most proud of?

Perrin Pring:

Sticking with it.

Perrin queried agents for 17 years.

Seventeen years is a long time to repeatedly experience rejection.

There were also periods when life made writing impossible.

But she always returned to it.

She kept writing.

She kept querying.

And she kept trying to become traditionally published.

Now that she's reached that goal, it's something she's immensely proud of.

And honestly, we think there's something incredibly inspiring about that kind of persistence.

👊 26. If readers could know just one thing before picking up Cash and Gravity, what would you want it to be?

Perrin Pring:

“This is a story where a woman gets to punch some people in the face as part of her day job.”

So...

If that sounds like your kind of energy?

You might want to pick up Cash and Gravity. 😂

🚀 27. What exciting projects, upcoming releases, or next adventures can readers look forward to?

Perrin Pring:

Good news for anyone who isn't ready to leave this world behind.

Perrin recently turned in Book 2 of Cash and Gravity.

So if you love Cash and Gravity...

The story isn't finished yet.

💭 Our Favorite Takeaways

There were so many moments in this conversation that stuck with us, but a few really stood out.

🌟 Write the story, not just the premise.

A great “what if?” can start a novel, but characters and conflict are what turn an idea into a story.

🌟 Let women take up space.

Chevy's physical presence and the reaction to it raises a fascinating question about what readers are willing to accept as “realistic.”

🌟 Genre fiction matters.

Entertainment, escape, hope, and fun aren't lesser goals.

Sometimes readers need a story that gives them a break from the world.

🌟 Experience can become creative fuel.

Perrin's years working outdoors don't simply provide interesting anecdotes. They inform the way she understands danger, risk, observation, and action.

🌟 Persistence matters.

Seventeen years of querying is an incredible reminder that rejection doesn't necessarily mean the story isn't worth telling.

🌟 You don't have to earn the title “writer.”

Read.

Write.

Keep coming back to it.

📚 About Cash and Gravity

Cash and Gravity is a science fiction western thriller centered on Chevy Cole and a dangerous corporate future where private corporations have gained enormous power over scientific advancement.

With action, adventure, speculative technology, the American West, corporate intrigue, and a heroine who refuses to fit neatly into expectations, the book offers readers a fast-paced escape while still giving us plenty to think about.

🔗 Find Perrin Pring & Cash and Gravity

🌐 Author Website

P² Books / Perrin Pring

📚 Author Page

Perrin Pring at Simon & Schuster

📱 Substack

@perrinpringauthor

📸 Instagram

@perrinpringauthor

🛍️ Where to Find Cash and Gravity

Readers can find Cash and Gravity through:

• Amazon

• Barnes & Noble

• Target

• Independent bookstores

• Other major booksellers

💬 Book Club Discussion Questions

Ready to take the conversation beyond the interview?

Here are a few questions to discuss with your book club:

1. Perrin describes Cash and Gravity as a sci-fi western thriller. Which element of that combination stood out most to you?

2. What did you think about Chevy's physical description and the expectations surrounding female heroes?

3. How did the American West influence your experience of the story?

4. Would you want to live in the world Perrin created? Why or why not?

5. Perrin says speculative fiction allows readers to examine real-world issues from a safer distance. Did Cash and Gravity make you think differently about any real-world issue?

6. What do you think makes Chevy a compelling hero?

7. Which character would you trust most on a road trip through the American West?

8. Which character would you absolutely not trust with your social media accounts?

9. Perrin says a hero becomes a hero when they can recognize and admit their mistakes. Do you agree?

10. What did you think of the balance between action, world-building, and character development?

11. If you could see Cash and Gravity adapted for film or television, who would you cast as Chevy?

12. What are your thoughts on Perrin's definition of a writer: someone who reads and writes when they're able?

❤️ A Huge Thank You to Perrin Pring

Thank you to Perrin Pring for joining us for such a thoughtful, funny, and fascinating Book Club Conversation.

From cross-country road trips and park ranger adventures to cats supervising writing sessions, speculative fiction, world-building, gender expectations, writing advice, and the long road to publication, we loved getting to know the person behind Cash and Gravity.

And we're definitely keeping an eye out for Book 2!

📣 Keep the Conversation Going

Have you read Cash and Gravity yet?

What question from our conversation would you most want to discuss with your book club?

Drop your thoughts in the comments and let us know!

And if you haven't picked up Cash and Gravity yet, consider this your sign. 🚀📚

Sci-fi. Western. Thriller.

What more could a bookish adventurer ask for?

What happens when science fiction meets the American West, corporate power, and a heroine who isn't interested in being told how much space she should take up?

In Cash and Gravity, author Perrin Pring takes readers into a high-stakes near-future where six mega-corporations and their privatized armies have reshaped society and introduces us to Chevy Cole, a woman navigating a dangerous corporate race that could determine humanity's future.

🎙️ Book Club Conversation with Perrin Pring

1. For readers discovering your work for the first time, how would you pitch Cash and Gravity in just three words?

Perrin Pring:
“Ha, well I would probably say, sci-fi, western, thriller.”

And honestly? We couldn't have said it better ourselves. 🤠🚀🔫

2. What first sparked the idea for this unique genre-bending story?

Perrin Pring:
“My husband and I were driving across the country right when Star Link was launching. It was September of 2020, and we had been living in remote areas where it was very hard to get reliable internet. On one of the days of our drive we had this conversation about what it would mean if private corporations outpaced the government in terms of science.

“And in that moment, I realized, I had a science fiction premise. But, I knew I didn’t have a story.

“So, while we drove across the beautiful, but lonely and austere, state of Nevada, we brainstormed characters who could live in this premise. When the conversation ended, I thought, I could actually write that, and so I did.”

Sometimes the best book ideas really do start with a long drive and a “what if?” conversation.

3. What can readers look forward to most when they meet Chevy Cole?

Perrin Pring:
“Chevy really evolved over the drafts of this book, but I’ve been told again and again that readers love that she just gets to live her life as she intends it. The societal expectations of what a woman should or should not be doing don’t phase Chevy.

“But to be clear, this isn’t a book that ruminates on gender roles. It’s just about a woman doing stuff, and the reader is left to ruminate because Chevy certainly isn’t going to!

“Interestingly, the number one critical thing people message me about is Chevy’s size. This isn’t a spoiler as it happens on page 6, but people are fine with the fact that I invented a mobile fusion device that fits in a pocket and can power a spaceship. But people are up in arms that I wrote a woman who is 6’2” and weighs 225. People have a lot of strong feelings on that.

“I think this highlights why sci-fi is so important. If we, as a society, are fine with envisioning technology that can change us, but not a world where women get to take up space, we probably need more sci-fi with women taking up more space.”

We have a feeling Chevy is going to be one of those characters book clubs have a lot to say about.

4. If Cash and Gravity had an official musical soundtrack or theme song, what would be the first track?

Perrin Pring:
“You know, right when Cash and Gravity debuted I was listening to ‘Good Girls’ by Josie Edwards and ‘Running with the Wolves’ by AURORA, so I think we’d start there.”

🎶 Consider this your official Cash and Gravity playlist starter.

5. Have your real-life adventures from world-class kayaking to working as a park ranger directly inspired your fiction?

Perrin Pring:
“I think the hands-on experience I’ve gotten doing things in the outdoors translates to being able to write an action thriller. I would rather learn from experience than spend hours researching something, which is probably why I don’t dare write historical fiction!

“I’m always impressed with those who really love research, but all those skills I’ve learned are the reason I write what I write.”

Her answer makes perfect sense when you consider the action-packed nature of Cash and Gravity. Sometimes the best research is getting out there and doing the thing.

6. If you could swap lives with one of your characters for a week, who would it be and would they survive a day in your boots as a park ranger?

Perrin Pring:
“I mean, I would love to get to be Chevy for a week. And she’d be fine as a park ranger, probably better than me.”

We love a character-author role reversal. And we're definitely curious about what Chevy's park ranger era would look like. 🌲

7. If you could take one character from Cash and Gravity on a real-world road trip through the American West, who would you choose?

Perrin Pring:
“Oh, probably Dolon. He would know all the weird hidey-holes and off the map places to check out. He’s also probably the best driver out of everyone in the book, which is key when you are road tripping with someone.”

A knowledgeable navigator, secret locations, and the best driver? Dolon sounds like the obvious road-trip choice.

8. If one of your characters could take over your social media accounts for a day, who would create the most absolute chaos?

Perrin Pring:
“Again, Dolon. He hates technology. He would do none of it, and I’d come back to a backlog, and probably a mess of things he touched and messed up.”

Honestly, handing your social media accounts to someone who hates technology sounds like a guaranteed disaster. 😂

✨ Want More? Join The First Editions!

That's just the beginning of our conversation with Perrin Pring!

In the full Book Club Conversation, we dive much deeper into Cash and Gravity, including:

📖 Perrin's ideal writing environment and the cats who insist on joining her writing sessions
🕯️ Her love of candles as part of her creative process
📚 The author she'd choose for a bookstore day
🌲 Why the American West is such an essential part of her storytelling
⚔️ The inspiration behind the book's female super-soldiers and the mysterious male Ace
🎬 What she'd want audiences to experience if Cash and Gravity became a movie or television series
🧠 Why science fiction is such a powerful way to explore morality and real-world issues
✍️ The writing advice that changed her perspective on what it means to be a real writer
🚀 Her journey through 17 years of querying
💫 What's next for Cash and Gravity including Book 2!

Want to read the entire interview?

👉 Join The First Editions, our paid membership, for access to the full Book Club Conversation and all of our exclusive book club content, resources, and author conversations.

🔗 Find Perrin Pring & Cash and Gravity

🌐 Author Website:
psquaredbooks.com

📚 Perrin Pring at Simon & Schuster:
Simon & Schuster — Perrin Pring

📱 Substack: @perrinpringauthor
📸 Instagram: @perrinpringauthor

Cash and Gravity is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, independent bookstores, and wherever you love to find your next read.

💬 Book Club Question

If you could take one fictional character on a road trip through the American West, who would you choose and where would you go first?

Hi there Dark Travelers, hope you are all having a great week of reading and life! Bindery recently launched their merch site, and just giving you all heads up that, if interested, as paid members you all get 30% off Bindery Merch now through September 1. If you want to grab some merch from a great bookish company and publisher, use the code BINDERYINSIDER for 30% off!

Also, just so everyone is in the know, you all have picked a book for me to read in September. I'll be reading Road of Bones: The Ashen Series, Book 1 by Demi Winter! This is my first real foray into romantasy, so I'm excited to give it a try. If you want to read along, make sure you're over on Discord. If you're not on Discord and want to be, comment below and I'll send you the invite link.

Happy reading!

Bob

Hi everyone! Hard to believe, but it is time to vote for our Q4 Book Club picks! For those of you who are new around here, we pick our books out quarterly to give people time to find the books and prepare their reading plans. We are now selecting our books for October - December 2026.

If you are just here on Bindery and not on our Discord server, we take proposals on Discord. Everyone has a week to post suggestions, react, and comment. I then whittle them down based on the following:

• Popularity: How many emojis/comments did a book get.

• Content of comments - does it seem like the group is interested, have a large number read or not, etc.

• Ensuring a diversity of reads, authors, book/story types, and sizes.

• Last but not least, my interest is the tiebreaker when things are close.

We had 40 submissions for this quarter, and so many amazing books to choose from! We had 6 clear top choices, 1 that was pretty clearly next in line, and then 4 ties that I whittled down to 3 for a total of 10 book to vote on.

This poll will close in one week, and the final choices will be announced September 4. You may select up to 3 choices! And don't forget, if you are looking for more beyond the book club, consider upgrading to the paid tier where paid member's get to choose a book to read with me each month, or check out our many buddy reads we have going at all times over on Discord!

Happy voting!

Okay, I know I was going to do a post about line edits, BUT I just opened up ARCs for Twisted Tales to Tell in the Night: A Yuletide Horror Anthology… and you know what that means if you’re reading this level.

You get early access! 🎄🔪

If you’d like an ARC, email us at info@deathbytbrbooks.com and we’ll send you both the ePub and PDF.

I am so excited to finally share this anthology with you, and I hope you enjoy reading it now and then again during Creepmas.

Thank you so much for supporting Death by TBR Books and supporting me as both an author and editor. It means so much to be able to share these books with you first. 🖤

I'll definitely do a line edits post next time!