Letter of News: Roots, Thorns, Sorrow

Dear Friends,

There are days where I'm disoriented by the strength in my hands. I've been lifting weights again, and the callus is re-emerging on my palms, a spine of orange mountains ranging at the base of my fingers that mesmerizes me, that I can't stop touching. After doing scapular retractions – dangling from the pull-up bar and drawing my shoulder blades together into perhaps 1/8th of a lift – my hands are sore, stiffened into claws, and take some time to limber up again; but a few hours later, flexing and stretching my fingers, I feel new power in them, and I don't know what to do with it. I lace and unlace them. I hover them over the keyboard and marvel at how separate they seem, subtle muscles activated in new ways. Today, I think, I want to bring them to my harp, remind myself of those techniques and ranges of motion, rebuild the callus on my fingertips as well.

It's strange to contemplate this on a day when I feel so helpless to do anything about this world in which we live, this world we ostensibly share. I look at headlines snarled with false premises and propaganda and want to unpick them; I look at people who are supposed to be my friends, who claim to love me, carrying endless water for the most vicious fascists quite passionately bent on the destruction of my friends and family. This constant wondering: does Israel bombing Lebanon make Israel more reprehensible, or Lebanese life less valuable, in their eyes?

I remember, in 2006, running into a friend I hadn't seen in a while; she asked how things were, and I said, "well, we were supposed to take a family trip to Lebanon, but," and trailed off, because how to explain the obvious, that we couldn't fly to Lebanon because Israel had bombed the airport and several bridges.

The first thing she said – the first thing – was, "Yeah... I have to look at both sides."

The exchange has remained crystalline in my memory, likely because of the stunning incongruity of that statement when I hadn't asked her to take a side, or express an opinion. The fact that "looking" at "both sides" never entails looking, only ever looking away. It's an abdication of the responsibility to think, to consider, to interrogate; it's looking at an outstretched hand and vigorously bending to the task of tying up your own.

My hands can't pluck bombs out of the air, or children out of their path. They cover my face, and they write this letter, and they clench into fists around a bar.

There's an instruction you receive when lifting: try to bend the bar in your hands, snap it in half. It's impossible – but it cues up muscles in your back, summons strength into places you need it to perform action.

Bend the bar. Write letters. Ask yourself what your body can do, and do it. Then ask everyone around you to ask themselves those questions, too.

I hope wherever you are, you're finding ways to work for the liberation of all people.

Love,

Amal

News about The River Has Roots

The geniuses at Tordotcom publicity made this beautiful animated cover for The River Has Roots! It makes me a little teary; by sheer coincidence (I truly had nothing to do with this), the music sounds like something my sister (who plays flute) & I (who play harp) would play together.

Meanwhile some absolutely incredible authors have offered deeply kind praise of the book that have me wanting to hide under my desk until the feelings pass:

"Gorgeous and glorious! Every sentence sings! Amal El-Mohtar weaves a lovely and poignant fairy tale that will linger in your heart." —Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop

"When it comes to storytelling, Amal El-Mohtar is like one of the grammarians of Thistleford, a magician capable of deftly transforming the familiar into the unfamiliar and the numinous into the humane. The River Has Roots is an utterly enchanting tale of love and longing, language and song, and the unbreakable bond of sisterhood.” —Fonda Lee, author of the Green Bone Saga

"This book is lyrical, elegant, and above all, kind. I devoured it in one sitting. This story feels like the smell of rain. This is a fairy tale wrapped in brilliant language. An absolute must-read. Amal El-Mohtar is quite simply one of the best writers on the scene in ages." —T. Kingfisher, New York Times bestselling author of A Sorceress Comes To Call

"The River Has Roots is the perfect fable: both bright and brutal, very old and brand new. It's a story that outlasts itself, lingering like a song; I adored it." —Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House

The River Has Roots will be published on March 4, 2025, and you can pre-order it wherever you get your books! I always recommend your local indie, but if you're in North America a bunch of options are aggregated here, and if you're in the UK, go here!

Ripped Bodice Event + New York Comic-Con

I've been invited to take part in some cool promo events for The River Has Roots in New York City next month! I haven't been since 2019!

The first of them is When Fantasy and Romance Kiss, a ticketed event at The Ripped Bodice, with Carissa Broadbent, Sara Raasch, and Sarah Beth Durst, on
October 16 at 7:00 pm. Apparently the first 25 ticket holders will also receive an arc of The River Has Roots!

After that, I'm scheduled for some stuff at NYCC! This is really exciting (and mildly terrifying), and here's where you can find me:

• Build a World with Fantasy Authors
  Sun, Oct 20, 2024 • 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  Location: Room 1B02
• Build a World with Fantasy Authors - Post Panel Book Signing
  Sun, Oct 20, 2024 • 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
  Location: Hall 1A: Author Autographing

Crossing the US border continues to be a fraught and terrible experience with no guarantees, but I'm making the attempt, and hope to see some of you there!

Postscripts

Podcast: A Meal of Thorns

The Ancillary Review of Books is lately one of my favourite places to read criticism; it published the single most dazzling review of This Is How You Lose the Time War it's been my privilege to read, written by Jake Casella Brookins. Now the ARB has launched a podcast focused on SFF criticism, hosted by Brookins, called (brilliantly) A Meal of Thorns.

I was delighted to be invited on to talk about Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant (2015). You can listen to it here, and subscribe to it wherever you get your podcasts! And if you like what you hear, consider supporting the ARB's Patreon.

Reactor: Eighteen Authors Interview

Christina Orlando asked 18 authors at WorldCon the same two questions, and we all answered really differently! My parents will no doubt be especially amused by the striking visual difference between my replies and the ones following.

(In my defence, I thought I was giving Christina material to edit down, and am choosing to hair-toss re: the material all being gold too precious to cut.)

Comic: One for Sorrow

I feel deeply lucky to have gotten to read an early copy of Issue #1 of Jamie McKelvie's One for Sorrow, an absolutely gorgeous Edwardian-era supernatural thriller. The cut-off for your local shops to get orders in and guarantee the issue on pub day is September 30, and I really recommend getting yours in; comics publishers print to order, so this is kind of pre-ordering on steroids. If you love Holmesian stuff, magpies, sharp and resourceful women, and bad men getting comeuppances, I think you'll love this.