(FIST PUNCHES THROUGH COFFIN LID) Bonelords, attend. We’re delaying the pub date for HARROW THE NINTH from 6/2/20 to 8/4/20, and the GIDEON THE NINTH trade paperback from 5/19/2020 to 7/14/20. That’s HARROW in August, and GIDEON in July.

Don’t cry. Ianthe loves it when you cry.

Due to social distancing requirements, indie bookstore closures and a multitude of other factors, we're delaying publication. I'd always pick HARROW coming out later than risk being any degree removed from infecting a reader, a bookseller, @TorDotComPub staff, or my mum.

HARROW is not the only book delayed this season, but this was a decision that was enormously difficult to make for everyone involved. It sucks. We all hate it. I was so excited for June to be the month where people read over five hundred pages of God eating biscuits.

It feels like skiting to imply that this disappoints anyone anywhere, but I accept that some people wanted those 500 biscuit pages. I could not be sorrier about this, nor more grateful for your support. Here are all the ways we have racked our brains to allay your sadness:

The WHOLE FIRST ACT is going to be up FREE, NO DOLLARS, on April 14th. ACT ONE is PARTICULARLY WILD, guys. You’ll meet OLD-SCHOOL LYCTORS, and our protagonist wears a mint-coloured garment. Gruel is eaten at some point?? Anyway, it’s off the HOOK https://publishing.tor.com/harrowtheninthactone-tamsynmuir/9781250774385/

As an offering, we’re releasing a new Locked Tomb short story instead on June the 2nd. It’s set prior to GIDEON THE NINTH. Its specifics are secret, but if you unravel the puzzle below, you might work out an important clue:

Narrator’s name rhymes with PAMILLA SECT

I’m tremendously sorry that this is happening at a time when all I wish for everyone is joy, safety, and all the toilet paper they can eat. I hope you’re keeping it together. I also hope you know that I tried to think up a Coronavirus Tridentarius joke and couldn't.

Follow @tordotcom for updates. My updates are all just how I looked away for .5 seconds while playing Sims 4 and the next thing I knew Harrow was having a baby. I won't demean her by revealing the other parent, but the baby’s name is Stacey, ‘cause her mom has got it going on.

Anyway, the baby glitched out and constantly falls asleep, and Harrow got smushed to death in a Murphy bed. This is still better than my Rimworld game where she married Dulcinea Septimus. I think Gideon died of the plague and my colonists had to eat her. Keep healthy, everyone