Rachel A. Rosen 📚💙🪐
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darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Rachel A. Rosen 📚💙🪐
@darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.6K following 1.5K posts
Purveyor of bleak climate fantasy and, apparently, cookbooks. Newsletter at https://nightbeatseu.ca/newsletter/. https://rachelarosen.carrd.co/ to find me all over the internet.
Order my newest book, Blight, here: https://books2read.com/u/mYVl9P
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darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Here's what I published in 2025, should you be the sort of person who nominates obscure Canadian weirdo authors for awards of any sort.
2025 Rachel A Rosen Award Eligiblity. Blight (The Sleep of Reason Book 2), Novel, What If We Kissed While Sinking a Billionare's Yacht?, Antifa Lit Journal Vol. 1, Short story. There is a cute black cat looking beseechingly at you with an arrow posted towards her that says "gratuitous cat for visibility." A stack of books are in the background of an obvious canva template.
November 25, 2025 at 12:34 AM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
I made this thing.
a close up of a white woman in a black shirt with a red octopus necklace.
October 8, 2025 at 9:53 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
If you're going to Can*Con, come say hi (and buy my books).
Can*Con Oct. 17-19 2025. Ottawa's Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Literature Convention. Rachel A Rosen. Sat., Oct. 18 2:30 pm: Book Signing: Newbridge Room. Sat., Oct. 19 5:30 pm: Blight launch: Founders Room. Sun., Oct. 19, 11:30 pm: One Ring to Bind Them: Writing Metaphor Network (Presentations). All weekend: Alternate Reality News Service Table Vendors room. Little author photo and images of the Blight cover.
September 24, 2025 at 11:25 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Can*Con is in a month! Here is where to find me:

Sat., Oct. 18, 2:30-3pm: Book signing in the Vendors' Room (Newbridge).
Sat., Oct. 18, 5:30-6:20pm: Blight Launch in the Founders Room.
Sun., Oct. 19, 11:30am-12:20pm: One Ring To Bind Them: Writing Metaphors in Networks.

Come find me and say hi!
Can*Con logo with a C that looks like Saturn.
September 20, 2025 at 1:15 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Check out my panel and reading at Rainbow Space Magic! It's free: www.rainbowspacemagic.org
How Do You Write When the World Is Falling Apart? Monique Cuillerier, Genevieve Clovis, SJ Groenewegen, Ash Kreider, Rachel A. Rosen. Rainbow Space Magic. October 4–5. RainbowSpaceMagic.org. Logo: A fountain pen draws a circle around the rainbow-colored letters RSM, ending in a little flying dragon and a ringed planet. Background: A starry sky with a rainbow. Rainbow Space Magic. October 4–5. RainbowSpaceMagic.org. Logo: A fountain pen draws a circle around the rainbow-colored letters RSM, ending in a little flying dragon and a ringed planet. Background: A starry sky with a rainbow.
September 4, 2025 at 11:48 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Super proud of my pin for being a first-time Aurora Award finalist!
Aurora Award first time nominee pin, which is silver and has a maple leaf cut out.
August 20, 2025 at 4:54 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Laugh at my compulsion to collect badge ribbons all you like, but each one represents a nice interaction with a nerdy human, and I think that’s beautiful.
A collection of badge ribbons from Worldcon. There are too many to list but highlights include I like miss, rude litter box, and I petted a sugar glider.
August 20, 2025 at 4:49 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Some photos from Day 2 at Worldcon: Sci-Fi and the Alt-Right, with Sam Asher, @naomikritzer.bsky.social, @jordanscarroll.bsky.social and Joseph Malik. Also a pic of my preferred method of getting from one panel to another.
A panel with 5 people, all of whom are amazing. Me in a cool dress in the TARDIS
August 16, 2025 at 4:16 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Worldcon folks! Come out to this in an hour.
CSFFA x wizards & spaceships room party thursday august 14 at 8 pm in room 3211 at the Sheraton Grande.
August 15, 2025 at 2:05 AM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
If you’re at WorldCon, you can pick up autographed copies of my book at the Book Nook. They’re even cheap thanks to the Canadian dollar.
A rack of books with mine (Cascade and Blight) at the bottom.
August 14, 2025 at 11:57 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Writing has been utter clown shoes lately so here's Maya in Braid, having A Moment.
Buy the first two books!

Cascade: mybook.to/cascade or bppress.ca/shop/

Blight: books2read.com/u/mYVl9P or bppress.ca/shop/
Maya, a young Tamil woman with long black hair and dark glasses, wearing a green hoodie, baggy pants, and oversized boots. She's sitting on a bench in a dead mall. There's graffiti behind her that technically reads Mac Paps 4 Ever but it's obscured by her head. There's a rubber duck in front of her hand, from which vague strandes of glowing green magic are eminating.
July 30, 2025 at 3:06 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Advertise your book with cover and content warnings only.

Violence, gore, body horror, multiple child deaths, torture, imprisonment, state repression, climate anxiety, substance abuse, racism, genocide, infidelity, toxic relationships, unparliamentary language.
Blight by Rachel A. Rosen featuring giant bone tentacles coming out of the ocean to surround a tiny sub with a glowing light. It's the Sleep of Reason Book 2. There's a blurb from Robert J. Sawyer that says "Rachel A. Rosen is a superb prose stylist and an incisive social commentator...Look for this one on the award ballots."
July 20, 2025 at 1:11 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Here I am at last night's book launch for Blight at Glad Day Bookshop. Photo courtesy of Alana Boltwood.
me speaking at Glad Day Bookshop. I am a short white woman with teal hair in a battle jacket. You can see some of the audience behind me.
July 4, 2025 at 5:03 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Criminally underrated series.
The Green Sky trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Snyder: Below the Root, And All Between, and Until the Celebration. The most 70s fantasy covers you've ever seen. The first shows two light-haired, white children flying among birds. The second shows a hooded child with slightly darker skin (she should be Black but like I said, 70s fantasy conventions) holding a rabbit in front of a dense city with a root system above it. The third shows the darker skinned child talking with a lighter skinned child among a bunch of giant mushrooms.
June 28, 2025 at 12:29 AM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Not an academic paper but I do wrong genre covers for fun.
Robert's Rules of Order but it's a pulp cover with all kinds of crazy hypermasculinity going on. The caption reads "The house WILL rise. Order is what separates men from beasts...and he's here to bring it!"
June 18, 2025 at 12:47 AM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Blight is OUT! You should be able to buy it and order it for your local bookstores and libraries in both paperback and ebook.
Amazon: mybook.to/blight
Other online retailers: books2read.com/u/mYVl9P
Direct from the publisher: bppress.ca/shop/ 🧵
Two versions of Blight by Rachel A. Rosen, one on ebook, one on paperback. Both feature bone tentacles and a tiny sub that's a light in the darkness.
June 15, 2025 at 1:35 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Blight, my revolutionary anti-fascism meets cosmic horror saga, is out today! Every book sold means that my cat gets more treats. books2read.com/u/mYVl9P or bppress.ca/shop/
Alice, a fluffy black cat, with a copy of Blight by Rachel A. Rosen and a patch that says Mackenzie-Papineau battalion, fascism shall be destroyed.
June 15, 2025 at 11:18 AM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Just one day left until the release of my second novel, Blight. If you hate fascism and appreciate gay wizards and eldritch horrors that claw at the shreds of your sanity, perhaps you'll find it as diverting a read as Sabot here does!

Pre-order Blight: books2read.com/u/mYVl9P or bppress.ca/shop/
Sabot, a fluffy black cat with green eyes, sits attentively by a copy of Blight by Rachel A. Rosen and a Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion badge that reads "Fascism Shall Be Destroyed."
June 14, 2025 at 1:54 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
My contemporary fantasy series, The Sleep of Reason, has multiple queer main characters, including these guys.
Cascade: mybook.to/cascade
Blight: books2read.com/u/mYVl9P
If lesbian orcas are more your thing, check out my story in Antifa Lit Vol. 1: www.notapipepublishing.com/antifa-lit-j...
Jonah (a medium-skinned man with short dark hair) and Ian (a pale/grey man) kissing in the darkness with a progress pride flag overlay. The text reads “What the fuck is wrong with you, b’y?” “Thought you were dead under a pile of rubble, asshole. Again.” “And you chose to celebrate this by gnawing my face off? Where’d you even learn to kiss, the Franklin Expedition?” Multiple copies of Cascade (The Sleep of Reason #1) by Rachel A. Rosen. The cover shows the Canadian parliament buildings with a sacred geometry overlay. Multiple copies of Blight (The Sleep of Reason #2) by Rachel A. Rosen. The cover shows a tiny sub surrounded by giant bone tentacles. Antifa lit journal vol. 1: What If We Kissed While Sinking a Billionaire's Yacht. The cover shows two orcas in front of a starburst with a sinking yacht silhouette.
June 1, 2025 at 11:38 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month from these two disasters. Blight drops June 15: books2read.com/u/mYVl9P or bppress.ca/shop/
Jonah (a medium-skinned man with short dark hair) and Ian (a pale/grey man) kissing in the darkness with a progress pride flag overlay. The text reads “What the fuck is wrong with you, b’y?” “Thought you were dead under a pile of rubble, asshole. Again.” “And you chose to celebrate this by gnawing my face off? Where’d you even learn to kiss, the Franklin Expedition?”
June 1, 2025 at 3:49 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
And here is my favourite of the Blight illustrations that I did. Want context? Pre-order the book at books2read.com/u/mYVl9P or bppress.ca/shop/
Ian, who is tall, middle-aged, and entirely grey, with glowing red eyes and a glowing red labyrinth on his chest, facing Maya, a young Tamil woman with a ponytail and glasses. The text reads: "I didn't ask you for time," Maya told him. "I never asked to be saved." And definitely not to be another sacrifice, like Ian had been, lighting herself on fire to serve as a torch for an ungrateful nation. "And yet," Ian said, "Here we both are. You're not gonna like what you find." "When do I ever?"
May 25, 2025 at 4:39 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
More character art from Blight, this one indulging my love for cosmic horror. Anyway, you can pre-order it here: books2read.com/u/mYVl9P or bppress.ca/shop/
A creepy corpse covered in fungal growths, facing an exhausted looking woman beneath a red light. The text reads: "The bodies sang as she passed them by, not just from their mouths but from the rustling of their limbs against the growths on the wall, the bubbling of something liquid under their flesh."
May 24, 2025 at 12:13 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
I've been doing some character illustrations for Blight, which comes out June 15th. You can pre-order it now, though:

books2read.com/u/mYVl9P or bppress.ca/shop/
propaganda-style poster of a woman singing in front of a partial Red Ensign flag. The text reads "See Lucy Fletcher, the songbird of the Dominion. National Arts Centre, November 15."
May 23, 2025 at 10:15 PM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
It's this girl's second birthday! You can contribute to her catfood fund by pre-ordering my new book:

books2read.com/u/mYVl9P or bppress.ca/shop/
Alice, a fluffy black cat, looks skeptically at a copy of Blight (The Sleep of Reason #2) by Rachel A. Rosen.
May 16, 2025 at 11:49 AM
darkerthanvanta.bsky.social
Blight, the sequel to Cascade, drops June 15. Magical apocalypse, eldritch horrors from the depths of the climate-ravaged ocean, and revolutionary gay wizards doing their best to overthrow a fascist government. books2read.com/u/mYVl9P or bppress.ca/shop/
Cascade and Blight by Rachel A. Rosen, pictured on a bookshelf with a vulture skull, a postcard from Fort McMurray, an election pin for Patrice Abel, and a Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion badge that reads "fascism shall be destroyed."
April 26, 2025 at 11:25 AM