by Melissa Jacobson | Sep 3, 2026 | Character Dossiers - The Characters who live in my version of a haunted America
An auctioneer showed up at the Cobweb Palace on Meiggs Wharf and started accepting bids. The San Francisco Chronicle covered it the next day. Thirty-seven years of Abe Werner’s life went on the block: the curiosities, the caged animals, the paintings. A statesman... 
by Melissa Jacobson | Aug 29, 2026 | About Me
If you’ve ever eaten a tomato still warm off the vine, you know why I kept trying. Grocery store tomatoes are usually sad, tasteless, mealy, styrofoam colored red. Garden tomatoes are special: tart, sweet, bursting with umami and juice. So even with Colorado in... 
by Melissa Jacobson | May 12, 2026 | Character Dossiers - The Characters who live in my version of a haunted America, Fact or Fantasy?
Necromancers and Navy Grog launches on May 15, 2026 which means I am officially in the final stretch of prelaunch chaos: checking links, refreshing pages I have no business refreshing, and pretending I am not emotionally invested in every tiny detail. Naturally, this... 
by Melissa Jacobson | Apr 26, 2026 | Lore and World Building
There is a secret government agency in the world of Bad Magic. It has a budget, a filing system, and very strong opinions about which kinds of magic are worth taking seriously. It’s wrong with impressive consistency. The Bureau of Magical Investigation was... 
by Melissa Jacobson | Feb 5, 2026 | About Me, On Writing
So is Bad Magic and Whiskey a Western? Short answer: no. Longer answer: also no. BUT there are guns, horses, railroads, ghosts, livestock and at least one extremely bad idea involving magic. When people hear that Bad Magic and Whiskey is set in late 19th-century New...