• San Diego Comic Con is happening right now, and most of the stories coming out of the convention could just as easily be press releases. But when you get that many creative people in one space at one time, interesting things will happen. For instance, Seattle author G. Willow Wilson gave the first public reading from her upcoming second novel, The Bird King. Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool writes:

Wilson treated her audience to a reading of the first chapter of The Bird King. The first chapter follows the young concubine Fatima as she slips out of her harem quarters to visit her friend Hassan. Fatima has become obsessed with an outdated map, and longs to see the world outside of the palace walls. Willow takes great care in describing her world, inviting her captive audience into the detailed and vibrant world she has created. The Bird King has no set release date.

• But some Comic Con-style press releases are more newsworthy than others: the New York Times just reported that Roxane Gay and poet Yona Harvey are publishing a new series with Marvel Comics titled World of Wakanda. It will be a spin-off series from Ta-Nehisi Coates's excellent Black Panther comics. Here's a quote from Gay that I love: “The opportunity to write black women and queer black women into the Marvel universe, there’s no saying no to that."

• In non-comic-related news, you should read this profile of the owners of the only romance-only bookshop in the United States over at the eminently bookmarkable website Badass Ladies You Should Know.