Karin Robinson
@karinjr
Sci Fi Fantasy author. Recovering podcaster. Former @demsabroad UK Vice Chair. Edelman Senior Director of Strategy. Mum. Cat lady. Represented by @ericshowers.bsky.social Building myself a Twitter life raft...
There are no "grand"s in my story, but plenty of "great"s. Here's Roo deploying her sarcasm about their course of action...
Oooh, this is cool! Waterstones is running a pre-order campaign for the Helen of Troy anthology from Flame Tree that's coming out in September. I've got a story in this that I'm really proud of - from the POV of an aging Helen decades after the war. Just enter SUMMER26 as your discount code.
Mare's mental health struggles take the form of seeing visions of Joan of Arc. Awkward..
My story The Shards of Empire is now live on the Trembling With Fear website. It features Irmengard, a rather extraordinary woman who has lived as a slave to the Empire for decades. But she has a secret. And a plan... horrortree.com/trembling-wi...
Going to be thinking about this paragraph for quite some time, I suspect...
So @mcmcomiccon.bsky.social was a blast today, thanks to everyone who came along to my workshop for querying authors. This was my first Comic Con, and I was so impressed - you guys look amazing! The costumes are next level. Here's a few random pics of fun things I spotted... 1) Norse axe throwing!
Some "significant" deals - again, SFF specifically and they don't APPEAR to be self to trad, though I could be wrong. Please tell me if I am!
This is a really common view, and yes it does feel this way. But, I'm a Publisher's Marketplace subscriber so I've just gone and taken a look specifically for SFF book deals announced in 2026 that are "Major" or "Significant" deals that don't appear to be indie-to trad authors. Here's what I found:
Yep. That's me. "Centre-left on economics, cosmopolitan and pro-European, with a belief in strong public services and a broadly Atlanticist foreign policy." ALTHOUGH... 1/2
Roo wonders if her sister is coming out of the closet. Which would be fine! Probably?
Today, I rounded up some of my recent writing wins and explained my "One Weird Trick" for managing short story submissions... faerypolitic.substack.com/p/my-writing...
Morning! I am reading a collection of Ted Chiang short stories. I know all of you know this already, but for the record: he’s really quite good, isn’t he?!
Teenage Roo does the moderation for her family's influencer business. It's.. not great.
My new hobby is asking AI bots about things I know more about than they do and then calling them out on every key error or omission. It is easy, and fun! Also, bleak and horrifying!
I feel like Ursula Le Guin's ghost would just wryly critique the data centers and they would crumble in shame. But fundamentally, yes.
But I disagree that opting out is fearful or retrograde - some of just are just bored to tears by prompting. It's contrary to why we write.
Actually, on reading it, this is a more interesting and thoughtful piece than the headline makes it sound. I think this is an fair point...
But looked at another way, I also got five rejections last week. Five! That's 2.5 times as many rejections as acceptances! Who cares. The yeses will always matter more. Shoot your shot, you know?
From my newest WIP novel - a modern fairy tale retelling about sisters. A lot of sisters.
Possibly one reason the "Bruce Springsteen biopic 'A Complete Unknown' was so disappointing to people is that it was actually a Bob Dylan biopic?