Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Christen Randall to reveal the cover of their upcoming bi4bi contemporary YA romance, According to Plan, releasing February 3, 2026 from Simon & Schuster! Here’s the story:
As editor-in-chief of their school’s literary magazine, Mal Flowers expected senior year fall to be full of cozy sweaters, good coffee, and copyediting. They just want to stick to The Plan to graduate and get out of their small midwestern town—a place where, as a broke, fat, queer person with ADHD, they’ve never really fit in. But when budget cuts result in the lit mag’s cancellation, Mal is suddenly scrambling to fill the hole in their college application.
That is, until Emerson Pike—loud, confident, and Mal’s complete opposite—suggests that the staff go rogue and create a zine instead. Which would be cool, except that making and selling contraband isn’t exactly what Mal envisioned as the extracurricular activity on their college application. A zine would be unofficial, unapproved, and definitely not in The Plan.
But a zine is also a good way to spend more time with Emerson, whose playful banter and bad jokes Mal can’t seem to get enough of. And maybe, with a group of new friends, the back of the charming coffee shop where Emerson works could be somewhere Mal does belong. Because breaking the rules with Emerson—and flirting with her over coffee—is fun . . .
And here’s the gorgeous cover, designed by Michael McCartney with art by Liz Parkes!
Christen Randall (they/she) is a queer, fat, neurodivergent author of queer, fat, neurodiverse books, including Junior Library Guild selection and instant USA TODAY bestseller The No-Girlfriend Rule. When they’re not writing joyful stories for the next generation of geeky gay kids, you can find them making zines about neighborhood cats, nerding out doing readers’ advisory as a library associate at their local library branch, or at home planning all the D&D campaigns they’ll run one day, they swear. Christen lives in Covington, Kentucky. Visit them online at ByChristenRandall.com and on social media @ByCRandall.
