In the fall of 2021, I discovered the Tabletop Role-Playing Game (TTRPG) called Coyote & Crow (C&C). I was intrigued with the world of the game from the second I saw it’s Kickstarter back in March of 2021—billed as “a tabletop role playing game set in an alternate future of the Americas where colonization never occurred”, I found myself unable to stop thinking about it. I joined the Kickstarter campaign, which went on to raise over $1 million!

A few months down the line, I saw that there was an opportunity to write a novel set in the C&C universe. I figured that it certainly couldn’t hurt to reach out—what did I have to lose, after all?

Well, a short back and forth via email and a phone call or two with the C&C creator, and I was signed to the project. I got early access to the game materials so that I could better understand the rules of the world that I was going to be diving into, and I began plotting and writing and falling in love.

About one year later, that initial work has blossomed into the novel titled HEMLOCK & SAGE, available November 16th, 2022. I was able to create original characters and show them coming of age in a rich, vibrant, alternate future society. These characters are Native, queer, messy, beautiful, and—I hope—relatable, even if their world is not ours.

This book is full of adventure and heart, and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to write it. I hope you have a chance to check it out and that you enjoy when you do!

Until we meet again,

Tali