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I've Joined The Creator Accountability Network

I've joined the Creator Accountability Network (CAN) as a provisionally credentialed creator! The provisional period is three months long, and at the end of that time I'll be fully credentialed if nothing disqualifying comes to light.  I'll be excerpting details from their website as the best way to explain what this is and what it means for me as a content creator and for you as readers and audience members. The short version is that I've undergone ethics training as part of the credentialing process, and that if you feel my actions have harmed you (now or in the future), you can report harassment, abuse, or other harm to CAN. Quotes in the rest of this post are from CAN's website as of August 16th, 2025. Here's the long version: From CAN's mission and purpose statements:  "The Creator Accountability Network empowers Community Members to build trust with Content Creators through ethical training and credentialing, victim-centered reporting of unethical...

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women.

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage. Alone and sometimes reviled, she has only her servants on her side. This evocative debut chronicles her rise to power through the eyes of her handmaiden, at once feminist high fantasy and a thrilling indictment of monarchy.

TITLE: The Empress of Salt and Fortune
AUTHOR: Nghi Vo
PUBLISHER: Tor.com
YEAR: 2020
LENGTH: 112 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Highly

Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Secondary Character(s), Genderqueer/Nonbinary Main Character(s).

*I received a review copy as part of the 2021 Hugo voters packet. 

THE EMPRESS OF SALT AND FORTUNE unwinds layers of grief and years of confinement amidst luxury into the willing ears of a Cleric sent to record all they can.

The layering of the framing narrative and the tale being told made this feel like it has the scope of a much larger novel while keeping the intimacy of a personal story told by one person to another over an ultimately brief period of time. I loved it and I'm eager to read more in this series.

CW for xenophobia, grief, pregnancy, medical trauma (not depicted), death.

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