Welcome to the Ink & Ether September '26 Dispatch

What's been on my mind

I don't know about you but I am so ready for the -Ber months! This time of year is like the Super Bowl for booksellers. There's just something about the Fall and Winter season that feel like you should always be curled up with a good book. Maybe books and hibernation just go together.

I've been reading ARC's like nobodies business and there's a lot. So buckle up because the book releases over the next few months are a marathon, not a sprint.

Sidenote* it's my birthday month! That's right, Virgo crew where you at! So get it together and don't skim, read all the way through, preferably while taking notes.

What's new on the shelves

The hot Summer months brought a bit of a slow down for business so I'm sure there are plenty of new titles you haven't seen yet.

Flowers For The Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn - A Shirley Jackson Award winning novella. Set on a ship of survivors after the world has flooded, one woman carries a pregnancy that might not be entirely human, along with a rage that's been building long before the water rose. Gothic, visceral, and reads in a single sitting.

Buy from Ink & Ether | Buy from Bookshop.org

Assistant and The Villain Series by Hannah Nicole Maehrer - Evie takes a job as assistant to a genuinely evil villain, expecting paperwork and mayhem — she gets both, plus an entirely unplanned romance. Think Once Upon a Time meets The Office. Four books deep now with Adversary to the Villain, the newest installment, and it only gets more chaotic from here.

Buy it From Ink & Ether | Buy it From Bookshop.org

Verity Guild by Mai Corland - A Rome-inspired slow burn where a priestess hiding a dangerous secret and the investigator sworn to expose her end up snowed in with an actual murderer. Political, tense, and ends on a cliffhanger that will have you counting down to book two.

Buy it From Ink & Ether | Buy it From Bookshop.org

The Library at Hellebore by - A school for the dangerously magical, where graduation day doubles as feeding time. Dark academia if dark academia meant the faculty might actually eat you. Gory, sharp, and not for the faint of heart.

Buy it From Ink & Ether | Buy it From Bookshop.org

Witch Season by Julia Bianco - Magic that costs blood and pain to wield, an enforcer bound to the very coven she's sworn to police, and a rival determined to make her life so much harder. Dark, tense, and deeply atmospheric.

Buy it From Ink & Ether | Buy it From Bookshop.org

From the grimoire

Well you won't believe the card I pulled this month but I 100% did, I promise. This month's card pull is Death. Hand to heart, the Death card came up so let's get to it.

The Death card is probably the most misunderstood but that's what makes it fun. I see Death to represent the inevitable end of a cycle. That cycle might be easy or it might be messy, but be assured it will come to an end one way or another. There is no escaping death. But with the end of the old, comes the birth of something new. So we can read this as a transformation and letting go of an old version to make way for new possibilities.

Two titles that come to mind for this reading examine Death in different ways.

She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

A girl who assumes the identity of her deceased brother and, in doing so, has to let every version of herself that came before quietly die. This is Death in its purest and most devastating form, not interrupted, not resisted, just fully accepted, because the fate on the other side of it is too enormous to turn away from.

Buy it From Ink & Ether | Buy it From Bookshop.org

She's a Doll by Barbara Truelove, out September 8th. Lucy McQuinn is murdered and refuses to accept it. She pours what's left of herself into an antique porcelain doll and goes looking for the man who killed her. This is Death interrupted. A transformation that was supposed to happen quietly instead gets redirected into rage, revenge, and eighteen inches of lacy, furious porcelain. Campy, sharp, and a genuinely fun read if you want your Death card with a little bite.

Buy it From Bookshop.org

There you go! Two very different takes on Death. One girl who refuses to let go. Another who let's go of everything.

The card poses the same question to you: what do you need to end so something new can begin?

Find Ink & Ether this month

Sep. 20th - Silent Reading Group at Communitea Coffee

Sep. 26th - Pop up at Rekindle Coffee

Oct. 2nd - Halloween Night Market at Communitea Coffee

Oct. 7th - Silent Reading Group at Communitea Coffee

Oct. 10-11 - Dragons and Dreams at Autry Museum

The Letter Corner

The Letter Corner is a hit! Thank you to everyone who has already stopped by and left a letter. We've seen letters come in from Singapore, England, and The Netherlands. We are definitely hoping for more Intro Letters to come in. Here's a quick recap of how things work:

1. Visit The Sunday Letter Project website and pick a shop participating in the Letter Keepers network.

2. Write your Introduction Letter and post it to the shop of your choosing. Be sure to include Ink & Ether in the return address.

3. Alternative option, you can find an Introduction Letter at Communitea Coffee to write to.

4. Take a picture of the letter and address, then go home and write.

Leaving the Intro Letters at the Letter Corner allows friends to find multiple penpals. The more the merrier right!

Need a writing suggestion? Why don't you share the best vacation you went on. Or share about something fun you did over the summer.

Before you go

If you made it this far, you have my gratitude! Hope Virgo season treats you well.

It's Tuesday! Which means the publishing goddesses have delivered again. Here's what dropped today that you should know about.

Eyes of Kings by Chloe Gong

The third book in the Flesh and False Gods series. The kingdom of Talin is unraveling — a recently dethroned king is ready to go to war against the woman who took his crown, and nobody in this world is walking away clean. If you've been following this series, you already know Gong doesn't do easy endings. If you haven't started yet, this is your sign to catch up before everyone else finishes it first.

A Clash of Carnivores by Liselle Sambury

Book two in the Mastery of Monsters trilogy. A girl bonded for life to a monster has to prepare for something called the Monster's Ball, and their relationship is exactly as complicated as that sounds. YA horror that doesn't flinch. Sambury writes fear the way it's supposed to feel — visceral and personal.

Find My Way Down to You by Julian Winters

A grieving teenager accidentally stumbles into the underworld while mourning his boyfriend, and has to choose between an ordinary life with his grief or a love that might undo him entirely. YA fantasy romance with real emotional weight behind it. Bring tissues.

The Lion & the Deathless Dark by Carissa Broadbent

Opens the Bloodborn Duet, set within the wider Crowns of Nyaxia universe. If you're already living in this world, this is the one you've been waiting for.

epistolary adj epis·​to·​lary

1: of, relating to, or suitable to a letter 2: contained in or carried on by letters 3: written in the form of a series of letters

It's official. Ink & Ether has joined the Sunday Letter Project! We are official Letter Keepers now. If you have been following along, you already know I believe books and letters are doing the same kind of magic. Both are an act of reaching toward someone and trusting they will meet you there.

So this week, in honor of the Sunday Letter Project, I want to recommend a few books that understand exactly what I mean. These are stories where letters are not just a plot device. They are the whole heartbeat of the thing.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

Two rival agents, warring across the strands of time, fall in love through letters they hide in tree rings, lava flows, and the bones of things that should not still exist. It is proof that even under the worst possible circumstances, people will find a way to write to each other. If that is not an argument for the Letter Corner, I do not know what is.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Celie writes to God because she has no one else. Then she writes to her sister because she refuses to stop believing someone is listening. This is one of the most devastating and hopeful examples in all of literature of what it means to put your voice on paper even when you are not sure anyone will ever read it.

Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A short, sharp feminist manifesto, written as an actual letter to a friend asking how to raise her daughter a feminist. Proof that a letter can be intimate and political at the exact same time.

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

A lighter pick, if you need one. Two people fall for each other through written words before they ever really meet. Sometimes the page really does know before you do.

The Prompt

And now, this week's letter writing prompt for the basket:

Write to a stranger about a letter you never sent. Who was it for? What did you never say? You do not have to send this one either. But maybe, this time, you should.

Get those introduction letter ready! The Letter Corner will be live at Communitea Coffee by Monday.

Learn more about the Sunday Letter Project and how to find a penpal here.

Not many people know the "lore" of Ink & Ether. Even fewer know what the turning point was that made me go from thinking about it, to doing it.

Walk with me back to 2025.

So I had lost my corporate job about a year after having my son. I had spent a year sending out resumes, applying for everything I could find, and I couldn't even get an interview for Walmart. I was working part-time at my local coffee shop and I was actually loving it. I had purpose, people cared about what I was doing and so did I. But part-time at an indie coffee shop leaves room for improvement financially.

One night after my son was asleep, my husband and I chatted before we inevitably dozed. I expressed my concern about finances and what it meant in the long run for our family. Ever the optimist my husband said I should do my own thing. Like a bookstore or something.

My internal critic immediately reacted I don't know anything about running a bookstore.

My husband is rarely dissuaded by my pessimism and this moment was no exception. But you like books and you read all the time. Such a generous observation, considering I'd rarely had time to brush my hair since having my son, let alone read a novel.

But he did make one good point.

Books and reading were one of the few constants in my life. Of all the hobbies that fell by the wayside throughout the years, books remained. Maybe I really should try to make a career out of something that meant that much to me. I know I could never get tired of reading. It's literally the dream to read all day, every day.

I gave myself a moment to allow the dream. What would I call it? Wouldn't it be cool if it was next door to the coffee shop? It would need to be something I could wholeheartedly enjoy being in every day. There are so many romance-only bookstores now, I can't do the same thing. How could I make something more me?

That was the moment it came to me, a fantasy bookstore, a pop-up to start out because funds were limited. A store with a backstory. Something fantasy worthy.

This is the story that motivated me that night and every day since. A story that needed to be brought to fruition and not allowed to fade by the light of day.

The Lore

There is a place where stories are kept safe—not lost, but guarded.

Ink & Ether is not located on any map, nor bound by bricks or borders. It exists between the folds of time and space, tucked in the breath between turning pages and fading dreams.

Some say it was created by a circle of bookwitches and scholar-priestesses—keepers of memory who refused to let the sacred voices of women be silenced. Others whisper that the shop found them, gathering seekers and scribes who could hear the call in their bones.

The storefront appears only to those who need it: a flicker in a foggy alley, a tent at twilight, a shadow between shelves at a market. It travels not by road, but by resonance—drawn to the curious, the quiet, the ones who listen.

Within its shelves lie tomes of power: cursed romances, whispered rebellions, folktales shaped like spells. Some books are new. Some are old enough to remember you. All are waiting.

Ink & Ether is not a business. It is a repository for the quietly enchanted, for those who seek truth, transformation, or simply a beautiful sentence to carry in their pocket like a charm.

You didn’t stumble upon us. You were summoned.

July is supposed to be a slow month for publishing. But that doesn't mean these July releases should be overlooked.

This month delivered some of the most quietly extraordinary fantasy releases of the year and of course they are all by women, and of course they all center women who refuse to be diminished by the worlds they inhabit. That is not a coincidence. That is what happens when you pay attention to the right voices.

Here is what you might not have known was out this month:

The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood by H.G. Parry release date: July 21

Wales, 1941. The world is at war and people everywhere have begun dreaming of King Arthur. The dreams spread like a plague, flooding sleep with visions of a returning king. But librarian Elaine Ambrose dreams of the Lady of the Lake instead and she is certain it is not a sign of salvation.

This is Arthurian legend refracted through the very real terror of WWII, written with the kind of lush, atmospheric prose that makes you feel like you are reading by candlelight in a blacked-out cottage. For anyone who has ever wanted their mythology to carry actual weight.

Misery's Wife by Joan Tierney release date: July 14

A trans woman sets out to rescue her sister from the Kingdom of Misery. She is aided by Luck's sister, Jinx — which tells you everything you need to know about how this journey is going to go.

This is a queer cli-fi reimagining of a Portuguese folktale, and it is exactly as lyrical, strange, and emotionally devastating as that description implies. Tierney writes folklore the way it was always meant to be written — as a map of what it costs to love someone and what you will burn down to bring them home.

Harbour of Hungry Ghosts by Eliza Chan release date: July 28

Opium War-era Hong Kong. The Au family are demon hunters — blessing shrines, honoring the dead, keeping their city safe from yiaoguai incursions. When British colonists disrupt the Hungry Ghost festival and Kiamling's grandmother is seized by something no one has seen before, Kiamling must lead the search with a mismatched crew of unexpected allies.

Babel meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the comparison being made and honestly it earns it. This one has the rare quality of being genuinely fun while also having something real to say about colonialism, family expectation, and what it means to be the daughter who is supposed to hold everything together.

There you have it! Three July releases. Three women. Three worlds that feel nothing like each other and everything like the kind of books Ink & Ether exists to put in your hands.

-The Keeper

The Letter Corner

Happy Sunday Book Friends,

Something I have wanted to bring to Ink & Ether since I discovered it, is finally happening.

I believe that books and letters live in the same world. They are both acts of reaching toward a story, toward another person, toward some part of yourself you haven't met yet. So when I discovered the Sunday Letter Project, it felt less like finding something new and more like recognizing something I had always been moving toward.

Ink & Ether will become an official Letter Keeper.

Here is what that means. Beginning in August at Communitea Coffee in Brea, there will be a letter basket. Inside that basket are letters written by real people who are looking for a pen pal — someone to write to, someone to be written back to. You can come in any time the shop is open, choose an intro letter that speaks to you, take a photo of it, and write back. No home addresses are ever exchanged. Everything goes through the Letter Keeper network safely and privately.

Send Locally or Abroad

You can also add your own intro letter to the basket to connect with pen-pals locally. Write a little about yourself, what you love, what you are reading, what you are looking for and leave it in the basket.

To connect with pen-pals abroad, you need to find a shop to send your intro letter to. You can find a shop in the Letter Keeper Network. Be sure to include us as the return address (see below) on the back of your letter and you're all set. Send it off and wait for a response. Easy!

This is community that does not require an algorithm. It is slow and intentional and a little bit magic, which feels very Ink & Ether to me. I hope you like the way that sounds.

To get you started, here is this week's letter writing prompt:

Write to a stranger about the book that changed something in you. Not your favorite book necessarily — the one that left you different than it found you. Tell them what it was, what it did, and whether you have ever recovered.

The basket will live at Communitea Coffee year round, even between pop-ups. So if you can never quite make it to an event, this is another way to find your way into the Ink & Ether community.

Return Address:

Ink & Ether
c/o Communitea Coffee
1015 E Imperial Hwy, Unit C1
Brea, CA 92821

Pages & Pour: Silent Reading Group

Last but not least, come join us for Silent Reading at Communitea Coffee today at 1pm.

This is for the introverts who want to do book club things without the book club socializing. Instead we each can choose our own book, and read at our own pace, in quiet community while enjoying an iced latte.

This may or may not be a ploy to give me more time to get some reading in but who isn't looking for a good excuse to read more. Right?

Hope you can join me today. But if you can't make it, look for the next one on Wednesday August 5th.

With gratitude,

The Keeper

Welcome to the Ink & Ether July '26 Dispatch

Hi Book Friends!

I know it's been a minute since you heard from me. I admit I haven't exactly been staying on top of keeping you updated. But that's about to change so expect monthly updates with all the details of what's happening at I&E. Let's go!

What's been on my mind

There’s been a lot happening for Ink & Ether in recent months. Doing consistent weekly pop-up events has been amazing and exhausting (in the best way of course). It’s definitely shown me that there are people who like this thing that I’m creating and for that, I am extremely grateful. I had to take a small break to reset and enjoy time with my family, but I’m back and I have some great plans for the future of Ink & Ether.

What's new on the shelves

The bindery books section has exploded! I’ve added some new titles and restocked some old ones so please be sure to find the new Bindery collection on my website. Catch a glimpse of some of these titles below.

Our Sister’s Keeper by Jasmine Holmes: If Beloved and Get Out had a baby in 1920’s Mississippi and gave her a coven.

The Devil Of The Deep by Falencia Jean-Francois: If Pirates of the Caribbean was Haitian, queer, and had something to say about blind faith in corrupt gods.

Black Salt Queen by Samantha Bansil: If Game of Thrones was set in precolonial Philippines, centered women entirely, and actually made you root for the villain.

From the grimoire

Anyone who knows me, knows I enjoy dabbling in the mystic arts. Since Ink & Ether began, I have wanted to find a way to incorporate my esoteric knowledge in some way and I think I've come up with something.

Every month I will draw a tarot card to select a title to spotlight.

This month's card pull is drawn from The Good Tarot by Colette Baron-Reid.

The card pull: 8 of Earth (8 of Pentacles) - the card of the devoted craftsperson

This card reminds us Rome wasn't built in a day. Sometimes success is built from daily acts of devotion. Incrementally. By showing up day after day, doing the work, putting in the time, and mastering your craft. Every small act of devotion compounds. The work is the magic.

For your reading life this month I'm pairing this card with You Were Born For This by Chani Nichols. This read is a reminder that your purpose isn't found in a single moment but excavated slowly, through honest self-study and the willingness to keep going.

And for fiction, A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna. After Sera Swann loses her power, she tends the Inn and keeps working to reclaim her magic.

This month the card is asking, what are you building quietly that deserves more of your attention?

Find Ink & Ether this month

I am making a concerted effort to have more events outside of pop ups. After all, how else is one supposed to build community? This month you can expect the first meeting of our Silent Reading Group. And soon we’ll be adding a Sunday Letter Writers group too! More on that to come.

July 17 - Summer Night Market @ Communitea Coffee

July 19 - Pages & Pour: Silent Reading Group @ Communitea Coffee

July 25 - Bagels and Boutiques @ Rekindle Coffee

July 25 - Mystic Night Market @ Lunam Love

You read that right I have 2 pop ups on July 25! What can I say, I felt bad for taking a few weeks off. I figured this was a good way to appease the bookselling gods LOL

Beyond this month there are already some big book events in Ink & Ether's future. Look out for us at Dragons & Dreamers and The OC Book Fair: Vol. 3!

For more events, visit the Ink & Ether website.

The Letter Corner

The Sunday Letter Project is something I discovered on Instagram. Started in 2025 by a couple in the UK with a stationery shop, The Sunday Letter Project is an analog path to connection with our neighbors in a digital world. I started writing letters on Sunday’s and have come to really enjoy the ritual of recounting my week to no one in particular.

Soon, Ink & Ether will become a full fledged “Letter Keeper” as they’re called, and will act as a poste restante for letter writers seeking a pen-pal. Write to friends and family, or your future self, or find a pen-pal on the other side of the world, the point is to find connection and slow down.

You can learn more about The Sunday Letter Project here and I’ll keep you posted on what’s next. It's my deepest hope that in the coming months we can create gatherings around letter writing and build network outside of this part of the country and world.

Before you go

Whew! That was a lot but thanks for getting through that with me. I’m manifesting magic for you this month.

With gratitude,

The Keeper