iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 29/08/2026

Okay, let's do this thing. Coming next week: TRIPLE WORLD SCORE, the return of Daniel Faust. Art by James T. Egan. Not up for preorder yet, I'm still finalizing the last round of editorial fixes, but soon.

The cover of the upcoming novel Triple World Score. It depicts a vintage muscle car racing ahead of a gigantic hand reaching for it, with broken-glass details all around it.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 04/08/2026

Given the rise of using AI for flyers (especially for food, like EW. Is there anything less appetizing? Just snap some photos of the real dishes, it isn't hard), I saw this template made by cartoonist Joe Wos and had to give it a go.

Cartoony image of a book (Catch and Kill), which is about cyberpunk, magic, catgirls and violence. Clearly reductionist, smdh. It can be obtained at aethonbooks.com/book/catch-and-kill/

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 07/07/2026

Fellow authors: without any context, what's the first line of your current WIP?

"Emily’s crew was playing by New Jersey rules this morning. They rolled across the border by the glow of false dawn, behind the wheel of a van plastered in bullet-pocked armor plating, chicken wire cages over the tinted windows. Not their usual ride. It was a loaner from some old contacts of Brewster’s, nomad smugglers who worked the northeast corridor. He had to call in a favor to borrow the thing, plus a promise of fifty gallons of diesel to be delivered by week’s end, but Emily was glad he did. Nobody opened fire as they crossed the state line, even though the van’s on-board sensor suite bristled with thermal contacts, so many angry red blips that it looked like the heads-up display had caught the measles. Vultures on rooftops, scavengers crouched behind broken windows or hanging back in the alleys, shadows on the outer edge of crackling trash-can fires."

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 15/05/2026

The maintenance guy told me, "You do NOT want to be around when it's time to water this thing."

A tree with a stone inscription at its base, reading "LIBERTY TREE, July 25, 1768, rededicated November 11, 1968"

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 21/03/2026

An art mystery! Photos like this have been showing up on utility poles around town because...well, it's Providence, and that's just how we do

A 70s or 80s-era photograph stapled to a wooden pole, depicting a man and woman preparing a meal outdoors at a picnic bench. Both people's faces have been cut out of the photo.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 02/03/2026

Figured it was finally time to get serious about building a base in Fallout 76. Just north of Highway Town in Ohio, feel free to drop in. Yes, I am wearing a unicorn mask. No, I am not taking questions from the media at this time.

A post-apocalyptic house from the videogame Fallout 76, suspiciously clean and well-kept. The proprietor stands out front wearing a unicorn mask, and a neon sign reads THE HUNT CLUB. This is a totally safe, cool place to hang out. SO safe.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 23/02/2026

Update: yeaaaaah I won't be able to leave my apartment for a little bit, fam

An image shot from an apartment window, with the street outside completely buried in snow.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 23/02/2026

So this is happening. I'd love to call it a snow day but I work from home, so this is just "Monday with complications"

A view from a wet window, showing a street completely flooded with snow.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 21/02/2026

I am an extremely normal Fallout 76 player

A screenshot from the video game Fallout 76, depicting an allegedly serious author wearing a unicorn mask for absolutely no reason.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 13/02/2026

Look what just came in the mail! This could be you. Reading it, I mean. I assume you aren't a book in disguise. If you are a book, you have to tell me or it's entrapment. That's the law.

A paperback copy of "Rats" by Craig Schaefer. The cover is purple and black and depicts rats and tentacles surrounding a neon-lit futuristic city.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 07/02/2026

Oh hey, just got the final cover for Rats, the third Castaways novel (from the awesome Rebecca Frank.) Soooooo...how are we feeling about a book release on Monday? Monday work for y'all?

A trio of paperback covers for the novels Castaways, Firebreak, and Rats, each with stylized imagery and a dominant color (blue, green and purple, respectively.)

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 10/01/2026

"You've been running a stealth rifle build since Fallout 1," they told me. "Just try power armor and heavy guns once, you won't get addicted, all the girlies love power armor and heavy guns." Well, this is me now, thanks a lot

A screenshot from the videogame Fallout 76 depicting the poster in pink power armor, holding a pink flamethrower, in a rainbow pride photo frame.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 08/11/2025

The audio adaptation of Firebreak (narrated by the fabulous Susannah Jones) is coming this Tuesday, the 11th, and it's up for pre-order now! (And editing on book three has begun, so we're firing on all cylinders over here.)

An audiobook cover for Firebreak, book two of the Castaways series, narrated by Susannah Jones and written by Craig Schaefer. The cover depicts a door standing alone in a wintery wood.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 29/10/2025

In case you're wondering what Microsoft shareholders are voting on, and what the board's stance is...

A list of proposals for Microsoft shareholders to vote on. The board recommends AGAINST reporting on their AI data usage, their operations in human rights hotspots, and their human rights due diligence.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 25/10/2025

Boston, I approve of your spookiness levels, keep up the good work.

A Halloween decoration featuring a scarecrow, a skeleton, and the skeleton's skeleton dog.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 18/10/2025

Work on the new Daniel Faust novel is underway. Figured I'd share how it starts.

I drove into the desert alone behind the wheel of a rental Pontiac, headlights cutting across the big cold empty, mountains the color of rust rising in the distance. Melanie wanted to come along. Bless that kid’s heart. Busted and gutted and looking at the bleakest of eternal fates — endless reincarnation as the Paladin, forced to fight and struggle and die again and again until the last battle for the last world in the multiverse — and her first priority was to try and make someone else feel better.
I said no. These people weren’t going to want to see me. They’d be even less happy to see her, and I needed something from them. Whether it took words or violence, I wasn’t leaving without it.
The hacienda rose in the distance at the end of a rambling dirt road, electric security lights painting long angled shafts across the sun-baked stucco walls. I stopped at the front gate, killed the engine and stepped out into the frigid desert night, hands open and empty at my sides. Two kids came out to greet me. College age, toting rifles almost as big as they were.
“A sound suppressor?” I asked one. “We’re sixty miles from civilization, and by ‘civilization’ I mean a gas station run by a half-blind old man named Cooter. If you start shooting, who’s going to hear you?”
He didn’t appreciate my tactical insight.
“She doesn’t want to talk to you,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said, “but she’s going to anyway.”
He started to level the rifle. I flicked my fingers out, and a trio of playing cards leaped from the breast pocket of my tailored jacket, swirling around me in a fluttering circle.
“Rule one of firearm safety,” I told him. “Never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to destroy. Aim that weapon at me, and I’m going to assume lethal intent.”

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 14/09/2025

Okay, buckle up, gonna tell you the story of how these animated assholes rerouted my career.

Aria Blaze, Adagio Dazzle and Sonata Dusk from the series "Equestria Girls."

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 09/08/2025

Reading through the Wisdom's Grave trilogy for...a thing I'm working on, never mind, it's a thing okay. Reminded how it made me wait. You should wait too, okay?

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 19/07/2025

Don't give me that look, Zipcar, you know EXACTLY what you just said. In the time-out corner, now.

An email advertisement from Zipcar, reading "Today's forecast: 100% chance of watersports."

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 18/07/2025

I love this as a storytelling device. In our real life dystopian future of 2025, we know video stores have been dead as the dodo for ages...but Robocop came out in 1987 (38 years ago today!), and in THAT future, video stores are alive and well.

A screenshot from the video game "Robocop: Unfinished Business." A shuttered store displays a sign advertising video rentals.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 25/06/2025

I thought Firebreak looked good as an ebook, but Rebecca Frank's cover art is even better on my shelf. I work with the best people and I will absolutely brag about them with zero provocation.

A paperback copy of the novel Firebreak, depicting a doorway in a snowy forest surrounded by stylized Tarot imagery and grasping tentacles.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 20/06/2025

Handling release-night stress by playing Arkham Horror, which may not have been the best choice, and also I'm about to be eaten by ghouls. Not COOL ghouls like Princess Dergwyn, gross and nasty ones. Also I acquired an ally who is a Very Good Boy and that's a problem because I can't use him.

A game of Arkham Horror, a card game, in full swing. Things do not look good for the player, but at least he has a dog.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 18/06/2025

Roughing out the general outline of my palace in Dune: Awakening. Back left corner needs...something, to make it look less flat, but otherwise it feels like a decent start to a build. Now...to decorate.

A screenshot from the video game Dune: Awakening, depicting a large structure built in the shadows of a jagged mountain.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 11/06/2025

Cover reveal, with art by the excellent Rebecca Frank! Firebreak is coming soon, we're in the final stretch of final-final edits now.

Cover of the upcoming novel Firebreak by Craig Schaefer, depicting a free-standing door in a snowy forest, framed by swords and octopus tentacles.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 06/06/2025

Too slow, sandworm! But no seriously it almost ate me

A screenshot from the video game Dune: Awakening showing the author's dumbass character looking back at the massive sandworm that nearly ate her five seconds ago.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 30/05/2025

Post a problematic "would": Horror edition. Y'all KNOW I have a thing for violent yanderes, I have never lied about this.

Robin McLeavy as Lola in the film The Loved Ones, holding a power drill and intending to do something rather awful with it.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 29/05/2025

"Well I tell ya what man that them there Goebbels fella and the broken rocket man sure musta been going on a whole dang ol Bareback Mountain kick but ya know what that probably weren't much fun cause I hear that dude's tallywhacker's all messed up" "Boomhauer, what the hell are you talking about?"

The cast of the animated series King of the Hill, drinking beer along a fence and most likely speculating about Elon's fucked-up dick.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 15/05/2025

Went out for a walk, met this nice family.

A mother goose guards (and herds) eight fluffy little chicks in a city park.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 11/04/2025

"If you turned bad which horror movie villain or creature would you be?" ...turned? This is my life's goal and I'm not even remotely joking.

Jurgen Prochnow as Sutter Cane in the film "In The Mouth of Madness" (1994)

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 07/04/2025

Cold, wet and overcast (like my heart)

A rain-slicked street in downtown Providence.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 31/03/2025

Doing a lil' location research around Brown University today.

A string of buildings from the 1800s, behind a very tall ionic column topped by a statue.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 15/03/2025

Providence by night. Huh. Looks like something out of one of those Craig Schaefer novels.

A city photograph of a walkway lit in green. Behind it, the spire of a building is lit in purple.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 27/02/2025

This paperback could be yours! Well, not THIS paperback, this one's mine, I'm just saying that print editions of Castaways are now available.

A paperback copy of the novel Castaways, depicting a fortress on a stylized Tarot-inspired background.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 26/02/2025

People told me that Quahog, from Family Guy, was based on Providence but I go out for walks every day and I haven't been randomly attacked by a single giant chicken. Yet.

A view of skyscrapers and a very large wall mural from the far side of the Providence River.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 23/02/2025

What's Castaways about? Mostly this.

A book cover encircled by arrows, indicating its contents. (Namely, dark academia, sapphic romance, tentacles (NOT LIKE THAT), a school of magic, parallel realities and a bobcat named Murder Mittens.)

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 06/02/2025

Snow day! Oh, wait, I work from home. Snowy day!

View from a window showing a wintery snowfall.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 27/01/2025

AI executives in a mad panic? The entire AI bubble on the verge of crashing? Rich assholes preparing to lose their shirts because they put all their marbles in a bucket of planet-burning garbage? Excuse me, gonna need to break out the big guns for this one

The Onion "Sicko" character shouting "Yes...ha ha ha...Yes!" while piloting a Battlemech.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 17/01/2025

Just sent this book off to my agents, so tonight it's time for

A bottle of Irish whiskey named "Writers' Tears."

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 01/01/2025

Was moving to downtown Providence a good idea? Why, yes, I believe it was

A large eruption of white and red fireworks.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 30/12/2024

Either they're setting up for a New Years party or dark necromancy has returned Prince to life. Probably the former but I'm hoping for the latter.

A building in downtown Providence decorated with purple and blue lights.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 20/12/2024

It's snowing downtown. Makes my heart happy.

A shot of snow falling on an urban street, taken from a window.

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 18/12/2024

I came out to have a good time and I feel so attacked right now

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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 11/12/2024

Publishers Marketplace announced it, so I can finally talk about it. Coming next Fall, Neon Meridian is a flash-forward into the future of Daniel Faust and Harmony Black's world, decades after the masquerade is shattered and the truth of magic is exposed to the entire world.

Publishers Marketplace listing announcing a three-book deal for Craig Schaefer's new Neon Meridian series, to Aethon, debuting in Fall 2025.

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