A Toast to a Cover Reveal
Books. Booze. Beats.
Books.
Today is an exciting day… because it’s COVER REVEAL day for The Midnight Muse which will be published by CLASH Books on March 10, 2026! So without further ado, here it is:
A missing lead singer comes back to haunt her bandmates during a trip to the woods in this mycelium-metal horror novel.
Cover artist Matthew Revert knocked it out of the park in capturing the vibe of this book. I adore the metal font and the glorious mushroom growths. The ghostly black and white also reflects the imagery in the novel, where ghostly figures appear to the band in the woods.
You can already pre-order on Bookshop or request an ARC on NetGalley. I know it’s early, but pre-orders are extremely helpful for indie authors, so if you were planning to get this book when it comes out anyway, please consider pre-ordering at any time over the next year!
To help celebrate the cover reveal and the ARCs for The Midnight Muse, I’ll be at AWP this week! On Friday at 1 pm I’ll be signing at the CLASH Booth. If you happen to be around, please stop by and say hi! I’ll have some sweet bookmarks I’ve just designed!
You may also have noticed a slight refresh of this newsletter… A while back I joked that, since I kept sharing music news, I should change “Books & Booze” to “Books & Booze & Beats.” Well, apparently I wasn’t joking. Look, I even made a new header graphic to prove it:
This seemed particularly fitting because The Midnight Muse is about a band, so music is integral not just to my life, but my writing, and I’ll be talking more about music moving forward! Maybe I’ll even pair some books with songs.
In the meantime, while I’m still in the “Books” section of this issues, I want to highlight a few books that had an impact on me while writing The Midnight Muse.
Mexican Gothic
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s iconic novel involves a house with fungus growing in the walls, infecting the house and the people in it. I had been thinking for a long time about writing a fungus horror novel, and when I read Mexican Gothic, I was even more inspired.
What Moves the Dead
I was amused when, after reading T. Kingfisher’s unique take on “The Fall of the House of Usher” vis-a-vis mushrooms, I discovered her note at the end of the book where she mentions thinking, after reading Mexican Gothic, “Oh my God, what can I possibly do with fungi in a collapsing Gothic house that Moreno-Garcia didn’t do ten times better?!” And with The Midnight Muse (albeit sans collapsing Gothic house) percolating in my mind at the time, I found myself completely agreeing with the sentiment. But hey, there’s a lot you can do with strange fungus. And fungus is very strange indeed.
By the way, today was also apparently the cover reveal for the third book in this trilogy, What Stalks the Deep, so check it out over at Tor Nightfire!
The Ritual
Adam Nevill’s novel is such a quintessential example of forest horror. The setting just oozes an atmosphere of disquiet in a wilderness setting. Plus, there’s a metal band. No fungus, but plenty of delicious folk horror!
Booze.
What should we pair with this month’s books?
First, I’ll have to toast to the cover reveal of The Midnight Muse with a glass of champagne. Okay, let’s be real: Prosecco. Close enough.
I seem to recall the characters drinking red wine in Mexican Gothic, so I would pair this with an Apothic Red for a little of that Gothic vibe.
I’ve actually already done a pairing with What Moves the Dead, back when my newsletter was still on MailChimp. I paired this one with Brandy Eggnog, supposedly Edgar Allan Poe’s favorite drink.
As for The Ritual, I’m going to suggest a creative twist on a simple classic to really get the flavor of the forest in your mouth:
Pine Needle Gin and Tonic
Ingredients
2 oz gin
1/2 oz pine syrup
1/2 oz lemon juice
4 oz tonic water
Directions
To make the pine syrup, stir together 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove once it starts boiling and add a small bunch of pine needles. Allow to infuse several hours or overnight. Strain out needles. Keep syrup in a jar in the refrigerator for up to one month.
In a glass with ice, combine gin, pine syrup, and lemon juice. Top with tonic water.
Beats.
My band Guerra/paz has two more songs out in the world: a dark journey down the road of death (“el camino”) and a moody French song for a rainy day (“apres la tempete”). Yes, we’re a bit eclectic. Please give them a listen!
Hey, we’re a moody sort of goth band with a Latin flavor, so… Mexican Gothic, anyone? Did I just come up with my first book and music pairing? Let’s go with it.
We’re also going to be performing at an event next week in which all three of my particular worlds (writing, academia, music) will collide: a Community Creative Writing Night hosted at Glendale Community College, where anyone is welcome to come learn about creative writing, dabble with some exercises in breakout workshops, and enjoy refreshments and live music! As one of the faculty members organizing this event, I’m excited for all of this to come together!
About Me
Jo Kaplan is a Shirley Jackson Award nominated author. Her novels include It Will Just Be Us, When the Night Bells Ring, and The Midnight Muse. Her short stories have appeared in Fireside Quarterly, Black Static, Nightmare Magazine, Vastarien, Horror Library, Nightscript, and a variety of anthologies (sometimes as Joanna Parypinski). She plays cello in the Symphony of the Verdugos and the band Guerra/paz. Find her at jo-kaplan.com.
That's a WONDERFUL cover!
Can't wait to read it! <3 :D