Alexandra McCollum

author | possibly a swarm of rats in a trenchcoat | they/them

[fyeahcontroversialcharacters]

[anmccollum]

[anmccollum]

I can’t believe it’s just one month until publication for INTO THE MIDNIGHT WOOD.

Straitlaced accountant David lives at the edge of the enchanted forest with his eccentric roommate Meredith, and has become so fed up with him that he’s begun compiling a mental list of all the reasons he can’t stand him. (He talks to mice! He paints frescos on the ceiling! He never takes his empty teacups to the sink!)

David is also entirely oblivious to the fact that Meredith is secretly(?) in love with him.

But when Meredith’s disapproving family and a dangerous entity from the forest show up to disrupt the status quo, David is forced to reconsider what his feelings toward his roommate really are.

[anmccollum]

David put the light bulbs firmly out of mind and went to work. He’d had a mercifully quiet Sunday: Meredith had shut himself in his room upstairs, evidently seized by artistic inspiration, while David had had quite the encouraging meeting with Leonard Flood, a most sensible and professional man, and had managed nearly the entire time to avoid staring at his tentacles.

-Into the Midnight Wood

[chronicallydragons]

I saw someone make a post on a different platform marketing their YA fantasy series with all the "overused" YA tropes they DON'T use. Like their main character isn't an orphan, etc. And ??? they said their dragon isn't "somehow disabled" (except they used a euphemism I hate), and 1) WHERE are they finding disabled dragons in YA in such high quantities that they think it's an overused trope 2) disability in fantasy is never a bad thing and 3) DISABILITY IS NOT A TROPE!! It's been like 3 days and I'm still so frustrated with this! Especially as a disabled author who has tried very, very hard to uplift, support, write, and bring awareness to as many fantasy books with disability rep as I can! I was in Artifice & Access, a disability in fantasy anthology, and my debut has disabled dragons! It's not been easy to find disability rep in books, especially not in fantasy, and especially not in major dragon characters! It just feels like a slap in the face, honestly anyway, if they're going to market their book by proudly declaring their able bodied dragons, I'm going to market my book by proudly declaring my disabled dragons!! Hello! I wrote a YA fantasy that comes out in March called Child of the Dragon about a rag-tag team of cursed shape-shifting dragons in high school trying to break their curse, take down an evil dragon government, and still pass calculus and features a POV character who's a chronically ill ex-assassin AND a dragon-shifter! There's also a side character dragon-shifter who's a wing amputee! Plus another one has anxiety, another has depression, and another has PTSD, so I've got a whole slew of disabled dragons! Did I mention it's also gay??? 1 POV character is demiromantic asexual, another is allo(??)ace, another is gay. A major side character is bisexual, and another minor side character is nonbinary. Also two minor side character are also super gay, but they're not out yet, it's just subtext (for now...) So, anyway. If you like disability rep and dragons, consider adding Child of the Dragon to your TBR! You can also preorder it (currently only from my publisher's website, but rolling out soon to major retailers!) I mean, look at this cover!

[anmccollum]

“We do not dispose of things by throwing them into the garden,” said David severely. “I swear, I’ve met wolves with better manners than you.” “So’ve I, Maurice Wolkowitz invited me to dinner a while back and had so many little forks laid out, I hadn’t the first idea where to begin. Course he managed it well enough, even with the paws.”

- Into the Midnight Wood

[thebibliosphere]

Floating face down in a blank word document file, while not physically possible, is nevertheless a tangible authorial state.

[smhallow]

I've missed you, you absolute shit. Don't get all sappy now, you sentimental fuck.

With a dash of heat & a lot of heart, OUR ROGUE FATES is an Achillean romance featuring recovery, pastries, and a mule that's smarter than everyone else. Releases 4/28/2026!

🍄⚔️preorder now & get all kinds of goodies!!⚔️🍄

[anmccollum]

I don't really understand Tumblr but here I am anyway! Mostly to talk about my upcoming book INTO THE MIDNIGHT WOOD, a queer adult romance with a cozy-ish fantasy setting.

The main character, David, is a neat, orderly accountant who disapproves of just about everything. He lives in Midnight Cottage at the edge of the enchanted Midnight Wood, along with his longtime roommate Meredith, an eccentric, scatterbrained tattoo artist who's in the habit of taking nighttime walks in the forest with his pet chihuahua. He's also secretly in love with David, who remains completely oblivious.

So oblivious, in fact, that he's making plans to move out - until he finds out that his boss's daughter is engaged to Meredith's estranged brother. David decides to stick around a little longer to get involved in the wedding and impress the boss, but when Meredith's unaccepting family shows up, David learns some difficult truths about his roommate - and about his own feelings.