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.
Remi K. England grew up on the Space Coast of Florida watching shuttle launches from the backyard. These days, they call rural Virginia home, where there are many more cows but a tragic lack of rockets. In between marathon writing sessions, Remi can be found drowning in fandom, rolling critical hits at the gaming table, digging in the garden, or feeding their video game addiction. They probably love Star Wars more than you do.
Avi
Sara Codair is the author of over fifty short stories, which are packed with action, adventure, magic, and the bizarre. They partially owe their success to their faithful feline writing partner, Goose the Meowditor-In-Chief, who likes to “edit” their work by deleting entire pages. Sara’s debut novel, Power Surge, was published by NineStar Press and the sequel will be out sometime in 2020. Find Sara online at 