Hi, Hello, I Exist, I’m Sorry!

Hello, friends, assorted family members, and kind randos. Happy new year. Welcome to 2025. We’re all still here. We made it.

We includes me. I, personally, do still exist and breathe, although if you were simply going by this Substack, you could be forgiven for assuming otherwise. I have been derelict. I am going to attempt, in this shiny new year with no mistakes in it (except for all the melted cheese I’ve already consumed in the last week), to Do Better.

For all the new people I have connected and reconnected with in the great social media reshuffling of late, allow me to re-introduce myself.

My name is Maxine Kaplan and I do my best to write things while also paying rent. I’m the author of The Accidental Bad Girl, a legitimately critically acclaimed* YA thriller noir and dark comedy loosely based on North by Northwest (*you will take my PW star over my cold, dead body), and of Wench, a funny YA cozy fantasy adventure following the archetypical tavern wench on a quest to reclaim her inn after losing it in a bureaucratic error. It stars a disaster bi and features volcano witches, ice queens, and mean horses. It’s a lot of fun!

At one point in history, I also wrote interactive novels (games!) for the dearly departed platform Storyloom. But I’m still working on games. Hopefully, more of that to announce in 2025! I’m also delving into the adult publishing world, and fervently hope to be able to give you more information on that soon, too. A quick hint: it’s like a witchy Bodies Bodies Bodies and it made my best friend, upon whom some of it is even based, to say, “I love you, but I can’t read another draft of that. Too scary.” :)

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I left off a project from the list above, because, frankly, while this project is sold, edited, and in production, it is also a graphic novel(!) and takes forever to put together, so I don’t have an exact release date yet, or a preorder link. Here’s what I can tell you about it: it’s a middle grade graphic novel starring twins, it’s being published by Abrams Books for Young Readers sometime in 2026 or 2027, and I’ve been calling it “Die Hard at a Bat Mitzvah party,” but that is not it’s final title, because they wouldn’t let me.

I am really excited about this book for a few reasons. One is that I love comic books. I love them so much. I always have, ever since I found a weird Peter Pan & the Pirates comic in an airport bookstore in third grade. I’m so, so delighted to have had the opportunity to finally write one, and to work with an absolutely incredible artist whose praises I cannot wait to sing just as soon as I am allowed to. The second reason is that this is the first time I’ve ever written about being a twin (important piece of context: I am a twin.) The third reason is that this is also the first time I’ve ever written about being Jewish. It is always a little nerve-wracking to be publicly Jewish on Elon Musk’s internet, but I’ve never seen my exact experience in a book before, let alone a book for kids, and I’m hoping that it resonates for some people who don’t feel seen.

So please keep an eye out for that.

Other than that, what can I tell you? I teach an afterschool class I designed called Portal Quest. It works for everyone, kindergarteners through adults. It’s a world-building class. Over the course of however many weeks, kids design whole continents (or other ecosystems), filling out details, like magic and technology, government, commerce, etc., culminating in them beginning to tell stories that utilize those worlds. I really like this part of how I spend time and make money. I’m hoping to figure out ways to do more teaching in 2025. I’m a member of Authors Against Book Bans and you should be, too. I live in Brooklyn, NY. I hate bicycles. I spend most of my time watching Star Trek. I’m incensed that I’m losing both The West Wing and The Magicians on streaming this month. I collect Agatha Christie first editions. I’m moving this month, out of an apartment I’ve lived in since 2010, so my life is just going to be an endless I Love Lucy episode remixed with interstitials from Kitchen Nightmares for the next 24 days or so.

And I have this Substack. I’ve mostly used this platform to muse on pop culture and its connections to my life as a writer and reader. I’m probably still going to do a lot of that, because I am a good little English major and I really like geeking out about TV, movies, reading, and writing. But I’m going to make sure this goes out once a month, and I promise, other than this one, every time it will not only have self-promo. There will be a fun or illuminating or pissed off essay every time. You can expect much deconstruction of genre and tropes. Also, when I started this Substack, I promised a screed against the fat erasure of Bess Marvin that I still haven’t done. I’m getting on that, because I’m 10000 percent right.

Honestly, I’m mostly reaching out to say happy new year, and I appreciate you. I appreciate every single one of you very, very much. We are what we’ve got, and I don’t take the privilege of community (or eyeballs) for granted.

Y’all are great, and you are going to get through this. Drink champagne all January, you’ve earned it.

Talk soon.