Kate Tell-Tale Heartfield

Kate Tell-Tale Heartfield

@kateheartfield.com

I write novels, games and stories. Coming in 2026: MERCUTIO and THE SWORDMASTER. Writer at CHEO Foundation (my views are my own). Former journalist. From Manitoba, now in Ottawa. She/her. Trans rights are human rights 🏳️‍🌈 https://kateheartfield.com

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Good morning! My novel MERCUTIO is out in the UK today. The best thing I've done. My thanks to my editor Jane Johnson, my agent Jennie Goloboy, to Leo Nickolls for the cover, and to Maxim Reston for the audiobook:

libro.fmMercutio Audiobook on Libro.fmFrom Sunday Times bestselling author of The Embroidered Book and The Valkyrie comes an opulent 13th century epic retelling of the life of Mercutio before he ever encountered Romeo and Juliet. ...

Kate Tell-Tale Heartfield reposted

Card payment at restaurants Cars Smog Acid rain Cheese Smoking, i.e. less of it Deodorants Streaming audio & video quality Star Wars The paper for comic books Acceptance for diverse sexuality & gender expression - and we better not let these MFs take us back!

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

Friday lunch! I went to make scones to use up the cranberries, remembered as I dumped the butter into the flour that my oven is broken, and made bannock instead. In addition to appliance death week, this is also surprise! brake repair week. But lunch is good.

Kate Tell-Tale Heartfield reposted

Three years ago, my dad said that all fish are the same shape. Out of spite, I decided to draw all 478 families of bony fish listed in Nelson 2016. There's still some stuff I need to edit and some fish I want to redraw but, after 985 days, I finished my big dumb fish project last night.

The Quantum Dawn is out soon! (Today in UK!) Derek and I both had debut novels in 2018 (The Quantum Magician for him), and for a while we both stepped back from other work to focus on novels and wrote together in the library. So I feel a kind of vicarious pride in this series, ha. It is excellent.

bookshop.orgThe Quantum DawnThe highly-anticipated fourth volume in the number-one bestselling Quantum Evolution series. An all-new, ground-breaking, action-packed science fiction adventure set in the universe of The Quantum Mag...
Derek Kunsken@derekkunsken.bsky.social

I have a weird announcement. On and off for the last five years, as a contract writer, and as a senior writer on staff, I've been hoping to be allowed to say where I worked. Today I finally got the green light: I've been working on the next Mass Effect. 1/6

A propos of the "make it beautiful" ad, I find it interesting that genAI slides are often text heavy wallpaper with nothing to draw the eye, but people use em anyway. The goal feels less "how do I communicate" more "how do I fill space with a pattern that now signals professionalism in my circles."

What is beautiful? Why is it beautiful to you? Who is the audience? What effect do you want it to have? Also why does success look like your female colleagues running a lint roller over you? Questions to ponder.

Kate Tell-Tale Heartfield reposted

I have a weird announcement. On and off for the last five years, as a contract writer, and as a senior writer on staff, I've been hoping to be allowed to say where I worked. Today I finally got the green light: I've been working on the next Mass Effect. 1/6

There is a doofus currently arguing here that no "creative talent" would choose to write tie-ins, and since I just did a panel this weekend on why creative talents choose to write IP, here are a few reasons. Non-financial reasons, for fun and because frankly it usually doesn't pay that well.

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We meet new readers in new ways. Sometimes we bring non-readers in, or back. I have emails from people saying one of my Assassin's Creed books was the first book they ever read cover to cover, or the first book they had read cover to cover in years. Better than awards, those emails.

It can be a gift you offer to a community, as well as an offering to a storytelling tradition. Fandoms can be ... complicated ... but the AC fans have been so lovely to me and their enthusiasm is lifegiving.

There is a doofus currently arguing here that no "creative talent" would choose to write tie-ins, and since I just did a panel this weekend on why creative talents choose to write IP, here are a few reasons. Non-financial reasons, for fun and because frankly it usually doesn't pay that well.

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Many writers find (I certainly do) that constraints can feed creativity, to a degree. "Write story" sure but "write a story about a sentient aluminum can with font allergies" yes now we're cooking.

There is a doofus currently arguing here that no "creative talent" would choose to write tie-ins, and since I just did a panel this weekend on why creative talents choose to write IP, here are a few reasons. Non-financial reasons, for fun and because frankly it usually doesn't pay that well.

People gathering in a coffee shop on a sunny afternoon to talk about books, with pistachio croissants and kids playing chess at a nearby table: Can recommend.

Kate Tell-Tale Heartfield@kateheartfield.com

Took the day off so I could be a guest at a bookstore book club this afternoon. Book clubs are so great and I love speaking with them when I can.

News you can use! The Chatelaine (also published as Armed in Her Fashion) is my first and weirdest book. It you liked Mercutio, you will probably like The Chatelaine, which has a similar vibe and time period. (Late 13th/early 14th c.) (And vice versa!)

Marie Sotiriou@mariesotiriou.bsky.social

Yay book clubs!! Also, did you know that your publisher just put one of your books “The Chatelaine” on sale? Not sure if the dates are accurate but the book deals email that I received says that it’s on sale until November 2, 2026 (at multiple US ebook vendors).

I used to take public transit in Ottawa all the time (lived here 12 years without a car), and then I didn't for years, and lately I have had to again on occasion and boy, it was bad before but it is so much worse now. Ludicrous. At least in the old days when all else failed you could get on the 95.

Kate Tell-Tale Heartfield reposted

Yep yep this. I'm not celebrating over here. Sure, we've postponed (another) separatist referendum bid (they're not going to give up, because the people funding them and pulling their strings are not), but. *Confirmation* that Alberta is mostly bigot by volume? Not fun.

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Oh look, it's a fresh horror in today's crop of author bot scam email: the usual sycophantic book report but this time, combined with sycophantic regurgitation of my newsletter. Time to dig up the "block AI from reading your archives" instructions from Buttondown I bookmarked the other day.

It feels like these things are going to a great deal of trouble lately, matching my newsletter with my books, even now occasionally finding me on a not-publicly-posted email that doesn't include my full name. Is this... agents? Because this really sucks. The bot scammers are becoming bot stalkers.

Nothing about this makes sense because the whole point is to find someone credulous! Why are they making the shit more shiny and continuing to machinegun it at people who KNOW it's shit? Anyone who gets this stuff regularly can spot it within three words.

Had a lovely time at Can*Con* this weekend. I am exhausted and my cat is miffed but I hugged a lot of friends, saw a lot of smiles I haven't seen in too long, and had some great conversations about art and life. Such a well run con. *plus a few hours at Wakefield Writers Fest today, also lovely

Looking forward to more Can*Con today! I'll be dashing off to the Wakefield Writers Festival this afternoon, but at Can*Con until 12:30.

Kate Tell-Tale Heartfield@kateheartfield.com

Lovely day at Can*Con, catching up with friends and connecting with readers. Tomorrow I am on two panels: Writing for a Big IP at 10 a.m., and The Limitations We Bring to Reinvention at 11:30 a.m.

Lovely day at Can*Con, catching up with friends and connecting with readers. Tomorrow I am on two panels: Writing for a Big IP at 10 a.m., and The Limitations We Bring to Reinvention at 11:30 a.m.

Kate Tell-Tale Heartfield reposted

flight angels have an 11 year old boy in Bemidji (with citizenship) who father was deported to mexico. he is broken without his dad. family is requesting a flight for a visit, it would have to be unaccompanied, due to status issues. it is $2100. can we raise this? i am @ziibiing on venmo.

I answered but it also got me tallying. Of mine, The Embroidered Book, The Tapestry of Time, The Valkyrie and Mercutio have parts. (Each of the latter two has a part named The Tower!) The Chatelaine, The Realm Invisible, The Swordmaster and my Assassin's Creed novels do not have parts. iirc.

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Scrivener asks you at the beginning whether you want a novel with parts or without, and I always appreciate being forced to think about it at that stage! (It's easy to change if need be, though.)

Just spent a wonderful hour with an online book club talking about The Embroidered Book with readers who had the kinds of experiences I hoped readers would have with it, and asked deep questions that made me think, and man, there is nothing better. Balm for the tired author.

The way I can empathize is my own behaviour with simple math. I know it would be better for my brain to just do it, but I am prone to err so I need to check it anyway so... why bother, which becomes a spiral. However, if my calculator tried to talk to me, that would probably cure me of that habit.

josh boo-erman 👻@bosh.worstpossible.world

the big thing the rise of LLMs has revealed to me is that there is a not insignificant chunk of the population that considers cognition itself to be a frustrating and unnecessary burden