Prettyboy Books Special Edition: GOBLIN MODE
A celebration of all things weird for GOBLIN MODE's pub day!
Welcome to this special edition of Prettyboy Books! I’m glad you could join. This issue of PBB is to celebrate the launch of my first book, Goblin Mode. In this newsletter you’ll find more info on my book, a Goblin Mode playlist, and several of my most goblin-y reading lists.
I hope this newsletter exponentially increases your TBR and gives you something cool to suggest at your next book club meeting. I hope you’re reminded that reading is very cool and fun and it doesn’t always have to be super serious. I hope you find something to read that’s outside your literary comfort zone. And I really, truly, from the bottom of my heart, hope you preorder my book Goblin Mode (available from Quirk books TODAY!! 6/27/23!). Thank you in advance :)
<3 McKayla
It’s Goblin Mode Day!
Today’s the day! My book Goblin Mode is finally out in the world. You can hold it in your grubby little hands. I’m extremely proud of this book. I think it’s cute and fun but also honest. I tried to include a lot of the lessons I’ve been learning in therapy over the last five years, along with the lessons I’ve learned from life in general. It’s got tips and ideas from me and my friends, and lots of references to the things and people that I love.
Goblin Mode was so much fun to write and work on. It’s the book that taught me I was capable of writing a book, so it’ll always be very special to me. I hope you find something special in it too!
Here’s the book description from my (wonderful) publisher, in case you need more convincing before you buy:
Embrace your inner goblin! Learn to decorate, dress, craft, forage, and live according to the goblin principles of community, diversity, proud weirdness, and joyful mess.
Do you ever feel strange, gross, chaotic, underappreciated, or like you don’t quite fit in? Great news: you might be a goblin! That means your imperfections and idiosyncrasies are the most awesome things about you, and you can build a more balanced, comfortable, harmonious life by accepting and honoring them—taking inspiration from the frogs, fungus, moss, rocks, and dirt that goblins love.
Can a mushroom give you fashion tips? Can a snail teach you to be a better person? You bet they can—and in this book you’ll also learn to:
Build a moss garden for your lair
Grow and use medicinal plants
Forage for berries (even in the city)
Mend your cozy sweaters
Display your cool rock collection
And more!
Anyone can be a goblin, and Goblin Mode includes life advice for celebrating physical and mental diversity, rejecting prejudice, and generally hanging on to a little joy.
Featuring 25 whimsical illustrations by Marian Churchland, Goblin Mode will help you rethink your relationship with your body, your home, your community, and the earth.
Goblin Mode: Goblin Books for Goblin Folks
Goblin Mode by McKayla Coyle
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler
stemmy things by imogen xtian smith
The Book of Difficult Fruit by Kate Lebo
Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
The Gathering Dark edited by Tori Bovalino
The Green Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock
Wintering by Katherine May
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
Annhilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Chouette by Claire Oshetsky
goblin mode: songs for weirdos / be gay, go goblin mode
A Spotify playlist full of songs about embracing your inner weirdo and living the life you want to live, ft basically all of my favorite artists.
(photo: moved by nature by annie collinge)
The Fungus Among Us: Mushroom Books for Mushy Folks
Tastes Like War by Grace M Cho
Fruiting Bodies by Kathryn Harlan
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
Fieldwork by Iliana Regan
Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
The Way Through the Woods by Long Litt Woon
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher
All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora
Weird Queers: A Celebration of Unhinged Gays
All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky
Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis
Your Driver is Waiting by Priya Guns
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
Memorial by Bryan Washington
Exalted by Anna Dorn
Nevada by Imogen Binnie
Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett
The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
Lonely Receiver by Zac Thompson
Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker
100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell