Tag Archives: Haley Rose

Exclusive Cover Reveal: One Morning Sun by Avi Silver

Today on the site, I’m delighted to welcome back Avi Silver to reveal the cover of One Morning Sun, the final book in the polyamorous and aroace YA fantasy Sãoni Cycle trilogy, releasing September 23, 2025! Here’s the story:

Sohmeng Parminhal is ready to face the unknown.

The mountain community of Ateng is safe at last, but Sohmeng and her partners have a new challenge ahead: defending Gãepongwei from the invading Qiao Sidhur Empire. While Soh is convinced that open conversation can turn her adversaries into allies, Prince Ahnschen isn’t so sure. His older sister, the charming and ruthless General Ólawen, has never been one to concede defeat.

With the future of the rainforest at stake, the hmun are uniting for the first time in living memory—and the animal kingdom has its part to play. But as self-appointed guardian of Eiji, Hei questions if the relationship between humans and sãoni is indeed symbiotic as they walk the line between skin and scales.

The dark of Minhal is coming. Inside that darkness, infinite possibility. In the final heartfelt chapter of the Sãoni Cycle, Hei, Ahn, and Sohmeng must decide their place in the perfect system, and become who the world needs each of them to be.

And here’s the gorgeous cover by Haley Rose!

Framed in curtains of purple leaves and jade vines, a calm ocean sunrise is rendered in vibrant, lineless illustration. The water seems to reflect the sun so that it forms a perfect circle out on the horizon. In the foreground, three silhouetted figures stand by the shore and watch the dawn emerge. In white text in the top third of the image, the title is written, “One Morning Sun”, while in the bottom quarter of the image, also in white, reads the author name, “Avi Silver”.

Buy the book!

In celebration of the Sãoni Cycle’s conclusion, The Shale Project is holding a giveaway on The StoryGraph! Enter to win one of 50 digital copies of Two Dark Moons, the first volume in the trilogy. Giveaway closes July 18, 2025.
New to the series? Recommended to anyone who needs a little more hope in their storytelling. Set in a queernormative, gender-diverse world (and with a fantasy astrology system to match!), Two Dark Moons is about environmental stewardship, unconventional relationships, and capable teens changing their world. Plus, giant lizards.

Avi Silver is a speculative author, poet, editor, and co-founder of The Shale Project. One Morning Sun, the finale of their Sãoni Cycle trilogy is forthcoming September 2025. They are also author of  the 2023 Aurora Award-nominated novella, Pluralities. Their poetry has been published in Strange Horizons and Uncanny Magazine, and received an honorable mention in the 2022 Rhysling Awards. Find their short fiction in Common Bonds: An Aromantic Speculative Anthology and Nothing Without Us Too. Avi currently lives in St. Thomas, ON with creative and life partner Sienna Tristen.

Exclusive Cover Reveal: The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming, Book Two: Practice by Sienna Tristen

Today on the site, we’re revealing the cover for the second book in the Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming series, namely The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming, Book Two: Practice by Sienna Tristen, which releases on October 22nd from the Shale Project! The book features an asexual genderqueer narrator, a queerplatonic partnership, and diverse case, and you can get more info on the first book here. Now read on to see where the story continues!

“All good theory stands up to the test of practice.”

Freshly risen from the underworld of his insecurities, Ronoah Genoveffa Elizzi-denna Pilanovani is halfway through his journey to the fabled Pilgrim State. But the world this side of the Iphigene Sea is not an easy one: violence and subterfuge litter the way forward, and something meaner stalks the edges of Ronoah’s certainty, something that threatens to turn the very reason for his pilgrimage to dust.

To survive, he will have to be clever and kind in equal measure. To ask for help from the acrobats and queens-to-be and foreigners’ gods that cross his path. To confront that beguiling, bewildering companion he travels with, the one whose secrets are so vast and unforgivable. He will have to draw on every story he knows in order to make it to the Pilgrim State with his soft heart intact—and then make it home again.

Mythic and multilayered, the final installment of the Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming duology is a love letter to losing and regaining faith in the world and the way you move through it.

And there’s the gorgeous cover, designed and illustrated by Haley Rose!

Preorder: Books2Read

Sienna Tristen is an author, poet, and literary organizer living in Treaty 3 territory who explores queer platonic partnership, the nonhuman world, and mythmaking in their work. The first installment of their award-winning fantasy duology The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming came out from indie arts collective The Shale Project in 2018; you can find their poetry in Augur Magazine and Plenitude, and their chapbook hortus animarum: a new herbal for the queer heart is forthcoming from Frog Hollow Press. When the sun is up, they work with The Word On The Street Toronto to showcase the coolest Canadian & Indigenous literature.

Exclusive Cover Reveal: Three Seeking Stars by Avi Silver

Today on the site, we’re welcoming Avi Silver to reveal the cover of their second novel, YA fantasy Three Seeking Stars! This sequel to Two Dark Moons releases July 13th, 2021 through The Shale Project and  includes an established F/NB pairing that is slowly becoming an M/F/NB polyamorous relationship, and has ace, aro, bisexual, and neurodivergent rep! Here’s the story:

Sohmeng Minhal is going to fix the world.

With her home still in jeopardy, she doesn’t have much choice. What she does have is Ahnschen, an endearing prince of the dangerous empire that is disrupting the sãoni migration route. If she can convince Hei to trust him long enough to safely return him to his people, Sohmeng might just have a chance of restoring balance to Eiji. That is, until an unexpected piece of her past emerges from the jungle and challenges everything she is trying to achieve.

Now, the future of Eiji rests in Ahn’s hands—but does he have the courage to face the harm inflicted by his people? Determined to do right by the beloved friend who died on his sword, it will take a lot of unlearning to prove to Eiji—and to Hei—that he can, in fact, be good.

In the second chapter of the Sãoni Cycle, Sohmeng, Hei, and Ahn must reconcile their places in the human and natural worlds, all while navigating their complicated feelings about one another.

And here’s the striking cover, designed by Haley Rose!

Preorder: Amazon | Bakka Phoenix | Kobo

Avi Silver is a speculative author (Two Dark Moons, 2019; Three Seeking Stars, 2021), editor (Augur Magazine), and poet. Find their short fiction in Common Bonds: An Aromantic Speculative Anthology, and their poetry forthcoming in Uncanny Magazine. In 2018, they co-founded The Shale Project, an award-winning indie arts collective, and have not stopped worldbuilding since. For more information, visit mxavisilver.com. For lizard pictures, follow them on Twitter @thescreambean.