One of the unfortunate things about situations like this is that they often overshadow the work. For instance, now people who might have been proud to have been winners of the More than Magic contest (people like Sloan Parker, author of More), may no longer like to talk about having won the contest on their websites or bios. And because I mentioned the controversy surrounding the creation of my most recent anthology, it’s kind of taken on a life of its own, and I almost don’t feel like I have the right to talk about it the way I usually would, which is more along the lines of:

Yay! I have a new anthology out. It’s a really cool anthology, and it has some of my favorite writers in it: people like Carrie Ryan and Carrie Vaughn and William Sleator. (William Sleator, guys! Where is my time machine so I can go back in time and tell my teenage aspiring writer self that one day I’ll be in an anthology with the author of THE HOUSE OF STAIRS!)

But let’s just pretend we can go back to that place.

My story in the anthology is called “Foundlings,” and it’s set in a near-future world where women have lost all their reproductive rights, and follows a teenage girl who is on the run with her pregnant twin sister.

This is the first thing I wrote when I came back from my maternity leave last year, and on one level, I was inspired to write this story as an exorcism of all the outside pressure I’d felt while pregnant to do XYZ exactly right. It was about the dirty looks I got if someone caught me drinking a soda or eating seafood, or the way total strangers felt they had the right to grill me about my birth plan or breastfeeding intentions.

It’s also a world that I’d had in my head since around 2002, though back then it had been an adult thriller inspired by a rash of recent murders of pregnant women (including the disappearance of Laci Peterson, as early on in the case there’d been a theory that she’d been kidnapped by someone who wanted the baby), and an article I’d read about some of the truly wild security measures that were being implemented in hospital obstetrical wards. When I had my baby, the hospital put a multitude of computerized bands on our bodies that would play lullabies if and only we were reunited. And while that was very cool, I could see a way that increased security around pregnancy might be used as weapons against women, very quickly.

And then I started reading about bills being introduced in US state legislatures that would require the investigation of every miscarriage, or outlaw birth control pills. I read about a law passed in Brazil that requires the registry of pregnant women. I researched the fate of the pregnant Desaparecidos (disappeared) in 1970s and 1980s Argentina, and the forced pregnancy testing that happened in Romania under Ceausescu.

In the non-governmental, societal side, I read about what actually comprised the “abstinence only” education that’s so prevalent in schools now, and the way these classes so often vilify sexually active youth and characterize teen motherhood as a penance a girl should pay for daring to have sex. I saw that teaching in action when I watched teenagers taking to task the people on the MTV show “16 and Pregnant” that chose to give their baby up for adoption, because, as these viewers put it, if they got pregnant, then they “deserved” to be forced to raise the child, no matter what would be best for them, their child, and the infertile couple who wanted to adopt said baby. I saw how even the pregnant couple in question’s own parents were telling them that they had no other choice.

Some of this happened long ago and far away, and some of it is happening here and now. And all of it is extremely scary.

All of it went into the big cauldron in my head, and what came out was “Foundlings.” It’s a story about sisters and unconditional love. It’s a story about babies and criminals. It’s a dystopian, but it’s not set in some distant, domed city where everyone eats food pills and has cybernetic eyeballs. In fact, the world it presents might be a little too close for comfort.

I hope you enjoy it. If you want the chance to win one of two copies of the anthology it’s in, go comment on yesterday’s blog post. If you want to talk about “Foundlings” (maybe you’ve read it?) or any of the things that inspired me to write it, feel free to comment here.

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I am not a member of this chapter. I am a member of the chapters WRW — my local DC chapter — and TARA, which is the Tampa chapter, and which I’m still a member of for nostalgic reasons. (I’m not even a member of YARWA, because 2 RWA chapters is already too many for me.) The only thing I know about this kerfuffle is what I have read on the internet and on the private RWA loops discussing the issue.

Because things on the internet are sometimes completely inaccurate, it has been erroneously reported that this is an RWA National stance. Which is not true. Here is a link to the rules of the RWA national published author contest,w which is called the RITA awards. I am currently judging this contest.

Other things that have been left out of a lot of reports:

• RWA has many members who write LGBT romances. In fact, there’s even an LGBT special interest chapter of RWA. Here is a list of its members. Go buy some of their books.
• This all blew up on the internet on Friday. This is Monday. Just because there has been no official statement from the all-volunteer board of RWA yet does not mean there will not be one.
• My understanding is that RWA National doesn’t have a lot of control over the chapter contests, and if it did, that would be globally bad for the contests for a myriad of reasons relating to the way contests have freedom to make up their own rules (for instance, about what constitutes “published”) that RWA doesn’t necessarily agree with. I don’t know what will happen now, but as it stands, even if RWA National wanted to do something, they might not have jurisdiction.
• The contest has been canceled.
• This small regional contest that hardly anyone ever heard of before Friday had at least one winner last year (I was told two, but I can’t seem to find it) that was a gay romance. The book, called MORE by Sloan Parker, won the award for best first book. Go buy it.

This last point is probably the most relevant of all. Because here’s what I’ve noticed about a lot of these kerfuffles, is that there’s a lot of outcry, but not a lot of follow up. The people on the internet like to pounce and loudly complain about discrimination and threaten boycotts of every book written by every RWA member (no, seriously, that was one email I got this weekend), or boycotts of every book by every RWA member in the chapter in question (another suggestion, to which I say — the only reason I actually know the rules of the contests of the chapters I’m a member of is because I went and looked them up this weekend, given that I am not on the boards, nor on the contest committees, and wouldn’t be entering them myself, so why in the world would I know?), but they aren’t saying, “Hey, you know what? This contest awarded an LGBT romance last year, let’s go buy it and show our support for what they say is an excellent LGBT romance and how it was brought to our attention as such by the judges of this contest.”

Or, hey! Let’s make a list of the people who were GOING to enter their LGBT romances in this contest and read them.

There is an outcry, but there isn’t a lot of follow up.

Last year, there was an outcry over a YA anthology that was prohibiting same-sex stories. There were a LOT of posts about it on the internet. There were a lot of authors who got up in arms and dropped out of not only that anthology, but an anthology being edited by the same editor, an anthology that I was writing for.

In the end, what ended up happening was that the anthology lost half its line up and the editor was removed from the project. We got a new editor, and a new line-up (an AMAZING line up, if I say so myself), and the publisher pledged to donate the proceeds to a homeless shelter for LGBT youth. The new anthology includes several LGBT stories. I’ve read them, they’re great.

And the internet? Is silent. I haven’t seen ONE blog review of this anthology. I haven’t seen ONE comment about the fact that there’s this great new anthology out there with all these LGBT-friendly YA stories in it. About how hey, look at the GOOD we did, by getting all kerfuffly on the internet. It gets better, guys! We complained about discrimination, and there was a response, and now there’s a book out there that would not have existed before, and it’s helping gay homeless youth, and it’s helping gay youth in general, because it’s representing them, and there’s really not enough of that out there.

But hey. Maybe that’s not as fun as being outraged.

You can ask Sailor Boy, I love me some righteous indignation. But I think, if we really want to make things better out there, the best way to do it is to make the fact that there great gay romances out there more visible. I haven’t read More, but I know it beat out debut books in every other genre in that RWA chapter contest in 2011, so that’s a pretty strong recommendation. And I personally think the Brave New Love anthology is fantastic, though I am biased, given that I am in it (though not financially biased, because it could sell a million copies, and I wouldn’t see a penny, being that it was a flat fee).

But don’t take my word for it. Read it yourself. Go out and buy it, knowing that your dollars will be donated to help homeless youth, or enter to win it in the giveaway contest on this very post.

That’s right. Giveaway. Leave a comment in this post, and enter to win your very own copy of Brave New Love. Contest goes until Friday. Since i have two copies to give away, THERE WILL BE TWO WINNERS.

ETA: Hello to everyone here from tumblr. Thank you for coming. I hope you enjoy the post.

ETA2: I have blogged about my story in the anthology (which is not, just to be clear, an LGBT story) and my inspiration for it.

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I spent New Year’s Eve in a highly productive manner: finishing my final proofs for For Darkness Shows the Stars. It’s fitting that I welcomed the New Year with work, as this is going to be a very, very heavy work year. Just look at my release schedule (anthologies and collections show my contribution in parentheses):

January: The Girl Who Was on Fire: Movie Edition essay collection (“Hunger Game Theory”)
February: Brave New Love anthology (“Foundlings”)
March: Rampant audiobook, Ascendant audiobook (yes! There will be audio books! I even have covers!)
April: Zombies vs. Unicorns anthology paperback (“The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn”), unnamed secret project (hopefully I shall be able to name it soon)
May: Ascendant paperback
June: For Darkness Shows the Stars

Fall: Under My Hat: Tales From the Cauldron anthology (“Stray Magic”) ; Foretold anthology (“Burned Bright”)

There’s also another release I have been unable to find any information about. And for my overseas readers, there are a few releases I don’t have dates for yet. Like I heard on Twitter that my Brazilian publisher is putting out Tap & Gown (Rosa e Tumulo #4) “next summer”. But that’s all I know.

10 projects (AT LEAST!) out next year. Yikes. Guess that makes up for the big ol’ goose egg of 2011. (Hey, I always said last year was a “building year.”) And that’s just that I can announce yet.

And, as an added bonus, all but TWO of this year’s SIX new releases are total stand-alones:

• For Darkness Shows the Stars: a post-apocalyptic novel inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion
• “Foundlings” (in Brave New Love, ed. by Paula Guran): a short story set in a near-future America
• “Burned Bright” (in Foretold, ed. by Carrie Ryan): a contemporary short story about a girl and a cult and the end of the world
• “Stray Magic” (in Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, ed. by Jonathan Strahan):  a short story about a girl who works in an animal shelter and the unusual pet who falls under her care.

The other two include “The Hammer of Artemis”, which is set in the killer unicorniverse (it’s historical, like “Errant”) and the aforementioned unnamed secret project.

Though compared to the beginning of the year, that second half of the year is looking a little bit sparse. I’ll have to get on that.

Just Kidding.

Sorta.

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This is the result: a huge, multi-author auction, multi-state fundraiser, and multi books available!

I’m so excited to be a part of this fundraiser for the Humane Society of Indianapolis (where Christine is located). As many of you know, the plight of homeless and abused pets is one that’s very near and dear to my heart. Before Q came along and risked us out of the activity (she’s a bit of a tail-and-whisker puller, which Rio puts up with, but is definitely too much for a scared homeless foster), Sailor Boy, Rio, and I used to foster homeless dogs as part of a rescue organization and I still do what I can (like home visits for potential adoptive parents) to help great pets find forever homes.

This is what I’m doing to help now.

First, we’re auctioning off a signed set of Rampant and Ascendant (hardcovers). Rampant the hardcover is out of print, guys. Which means you might get one of the VERY LAST COPIES in existence. The lot also includes a limited edition ARC of Jeri Smith-Ready’s SHINE.

You can’t imagine how happy this makes me, given that Jeri is the one who got me into dog fostering to begin with.

ALSO:

Carrie Ryan (another big animal lover) and I will be matching the aggregate of all donations/bids up to $1,000 and donating that amount to our local animal rescue groups.

This is an amazing chance to get your hands on some signed, limited edition books and do wonders for animals in need.

And, since I know I’m getting a lot of visitors right now due to the Cassandra Clare giveaway, I thought I’d point out that one of the lots includes signed copies of the entire Mortal Instruments tetralogy.

So go now! Check out all the lots. Bid on something and know that you are going to make a real difference in some poor animal’s life this Christmas.

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Veronica Mars:

Then I started doing one for Gossip Girl, but 1) I ran out of room, and 2) I’m about halfway through season four, and a wrench just got thrown into my design. I’m going to need to start employing curvy lines. Or at least catch up on the show before I try to parse ALLLLLLLL the pairings.

Meanwhile, I’m drafting away on my new secret project, codename PIMP (I know — naughty, naughty, right?) and am deeeeep into research. Research is a funny, funny thing. For instance, these are a few of the things I’ve been researching while working on my latest novel:

• orphan diseases
• Alexander McQueen
• sericulture
• Santorini
• taro
• juvenile canities
• Huntington’s disease
• animals in the family Mustelidae
• biomolecular computing
• solar sails
• coral spawn
• geothermal power
• hair dye and bleaching techniques
• ziplining
• rock cutting
• kites

My mind goes to strange places.

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While I will not deny that there are a lot of novels out there that have borrowed the love triangle formula (in the mathematical sense) that worked so well in Twilight, it’s not a singular occurrence. Also incredibly popular after the worldwide, game-changing, publisher-floating, industry-saving and genre-creating success of Twilight? Books about EVERYTHING that Twilight was about. Books about vampires, books about beautiful immortal people, books about unusual families of paranormal humanoid creatures living amongst us, books about girls with paranormal boyfriends, and books in which high school girls fall into extraordinarily quick and everlasting love. All of these are available in ready supply right now, all of them owe at least some part of their current popularity to Twilight.

This is a good thing. People finding new things they like in books and then reading more books about those things? Wonderful.

And one of those things, yes, is “a girl in love with two boys” love triangles.

I have only published one book with that kind of love triangle in it: My first novel, Secret Society Girl, which came out in 2006, right when Meyer was lighting the world on fire with New Moon. Like Bella, my character Amy has to make a choice between two boys she likes who both like her.

However, I have written two books with this supposedly rare “two girls one guy” love triangle: Rites of Spring (Break), in which Amy competes for the affections of a guy, and the upcoming For Darkness Shows the Stars, which is based on Persuasion, and therefore includes the Anne Elliot — Captain Wentworth — Louisa Musgrove triangle so beloved (or beloved-to-behated) by its fans.

So, having published one of these and seen years worth of reader reactions (and read enough reactions to the Persuasion one to know it’s the same), I can tell you right now why the Twilight kind is more popular:

1. most of the readers of these types of novels are girls
2. These readers are moved by the “tough decision” facing a heroine with two fabulous guys after her.
3. Which leads to “team” formation, by individual readers, in fan circles, and by publicity departments.
4. Whereas the heroine competing for the affections of a guy against another girl gets one reaction: beat the “other woman.”

(Note: this is very typical Louisa Musgrove treatment in Jane Austen fandom.)

If the other woman is a normal woman with faults like the heroine, she is labeled an irredeemable b****. If the other woman is a saint, she is allowed to be pitied, but we still root for the heroine to get the man. Why? Because to do otherwise would mean the reader is rooting against the heroine. And, almost without exception, that ain’t good.

In Rites of Spring (Break), Amy does not win her love triangle. And despite the fact that I very clearly demonstrate that the guy at the center of it is NOT the one for her, and soon after I embroil her in a fabulously delicious romance with a new guy, you would not believe the number of emails I get demonizing both other parties and wishing that Amy had won. Even though, if she HAD won, she would not have going on to her wonderful romance that they also say they love so much.

The way I look at it is like this: even if you know your ex or the guy who would never ask you out in high school  was TOTALLY wrong for you now, you still want to look drop-dead gorgeous at your high school reunion, right? Just because you’re better off without them doesn’t mean they shouldn’t still pine for you. It’s not the most enlightened of all feelings, but it’s a fantasy.

(Hello, exes. Yes, this is what I Iook like every single day. No, I do not currently have bags under my eyes because Q was up half the night or applesauce in my hair because, well, see previous.)

And it’s that fantasy — of having multiple people madly in love with us, that is so compelling to so many readers.

But here’s the problem: because it’s so compelling, and because publisher publicity departments (understanding this visceral response readers have to this storyline) have pumped it up, its prevalence in the book on the shelves and, perhaps more importantly, in the marketing material for books on the shelves, has trained readers to expect a love triangle in their novels When people complain “why does there have to be a love triangle in every YA novel” they are often complaining about things that a few years ago would not have been considered a love triangle at all.

How do I know this?

Because there was no love triangle in Twilight.

Bella loved Edward, and Edward loved Bella. There might have been a few other people who were interested in dating Bella, just like there was some lingering resentment on the part of Rosalie that she hadn’t good enough for Edward while Bella was, but neither of those things weighed particularly heavily on either of these characters’ minds (and Rosalie has been long since happily matched up).

But if that book were published today, with the microscope readers have been trained to place on any whiff of something that might be a love triangle, they might see this:

And maybe that’s a compelling story, told from the point of view of Mike or Jacob. Poor guys, they secretly love Bella, but she only has eyes for the vampire. Indeed, as the series progressed, Meyer chose to dwell on this facet of Jacob’s story. But that’s as the series progressed.

I read reviews of books all the time where they talk about love triangles that range from a stretch to completely non-existent. I have received emails about the “love triangle” in Ascendant. At first, I spent a lot of time scratching my head. Then I realized they were referring to the fact that Astrid is pursued by one boy while dating another.

To me, that was no more a love triangle than the fact that every boy in Forks instantly goes ga-ga over the “new girl” Bella is somehow indicative of a love tetrahedron.You kinda need love to have a love triangle. Or at least the idea of choosing one over another. The love triangles in my friend Carrie Ryan’s books (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, etc.)? LOVE. TRIANGLES. Mary is in love with Travis but betrothed to his brother. Gabry feels enormously guilty over her growing attachment to Elias after her old boyfriend got infected with the zombie plague… for her. Angst galore! What will she choose? Who will she end up with?

If you’ve read Ascendant, you know that’s not Astrid’s problem. And not in the sense of “she has bigger problems” (which she does), because girls on the run from zombies ALSO have bigger problems, but more in the sense that those questions are not on the plate for her.

However, I also agree with Carrie’s point in her own post on love triangles, in which she says:

“To me, that’s the essence of a love triangle — each man is a viable choice for the heroine but each speaks to a different part of who she is.  The heroine isn’t choosing between two men, she’s choosing who SHE wants to be and that will dictate who the right match is.”

I first read about this conceptualization of a story’s love triangle in a screenwriting class in 2005, and it really stuck with me. When I looked at the love triangle in my first book through this lens, I realized not only why neither prong would work but who, in fact, it was that was right for my heroine.

(When Meyers claims in interviews that the books are anti-human, this is what it means. If you can swing your vampirism the way the Cullens do — going off and eating venison in the woods — there is absolutely no downside to vampirism. Bella’s choice reflects the fact that, very reasonably, she’d rather be an eternally healthy, beautiful, young, powerful, awesome vampire then get old, get sick, get hurt, and die in a frail human form.)

But of course, all choices a character makes is reflective on who she is. The choices that Astrid makes in Ascendant regarding her love life have very little to do with the boys involved, and everything to do with her depression, isolation, and eventual nihilism. And though you can argue that Giovanni is a reflection of one facet of Astrid’s character, choosing him would not magically make that Astrid manifest, and Astrid knows it.

One of my favorite scenes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer comes from season five. Buffy and her friends have just overcome a spell that was meant to split Buffy into her component parts: normal girl and vampire slayer. Her boyfriend Riley tells her that he loves all of her — both parts. That to him, she is indivisible.The tragedy comes when later in that same episode, he posits that it is this elemental wholeness of Buffy that makes her unable to love him. (And where he goes from there is truly tragic.)

(I know a lot of people dislike Riley because of the things he did AFTER this revelation, and I used to be right there with you, but upon repeated rewatching, I’ve come to the conclusion that Riley’s mistakes — and he makes plenty — are not so much him having a problem with a strong woman — since he ends up marrying another — as him deciding, maybe or maybe not falsely — that he’s not good enough for Buffy without magical powers. To be discussed in detail later. People often liken Astrid and Giovanni to Buffy and Riley, though I think a more apt corollary would probably be Buffy and Xander, which never happened on the show.)

Buffy may have chosen Riley, but choosing to have a relationship with this nice, normal guy (instead of her occasionally sociopathic vampire ex-boyfriend) doesn’t make Buffy a normal girl. Over and over in the series, Buffy is forced to make a choice between her love life and her job, often explicitly. Save Angel, or save the world, etc.? Again and again, they ask Buffy who she is, and her answer is “slayer.”

Sometimes, the triangle doesn’t even involve another guy. Sometimes it’s about the heroine choosing not to be with someone, full stop.

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I am still undecided. I am ruminating over a pot of tea. What say you?

(Yes, this is what making a book looks like. Why do you ask?)

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Except it’s probably not really new cover day for most of the readers of this blog, since it’s only the UK publisher (Constable and Robinson) who are advertising this cover. The US publisher (Running Press Kids) might have a totally different vision in mind. But still, my story will be inside this book, too. Hello, potential UK readers!

Brave New Love

13 Dystopian Tales of Desire
by Paula Guran

Mar 6, 2012
ISBN: 9780762442201
ISBN-10: 0762442204
Published by Running Press

When society crumbles, can young love survive? When the young are deprived of their bright future and left to survive day to day, what bonds remain between individuals? Can young love survive a dystopian nightmare? This exciting collection of stories explores the struggles, both emotional and physical, of teenagers trying to survive as society falls apart or as they help build a new world. Compelling, emotionally charged stories of young lives lived in desperate circumstances by: John Shirley, Elizabeth Bear, Kiera Cass, Nisi Shawl, Maria V. Snyder, Carrie Vaughn, Steve Berman, Amanda Downum, Diana Peterfreund, Jeanne DuPrau, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jesse Karp, William Sleator, Carrie Ryan and Seth Cadin.

My contribution is entitled “Foundlings” and it’s a story about sisters, secrets, and a world where the slightest slip can turn you into a ward of the state. It’s set in a totally new world for me. It’s also the first thing I wrote after giving birth to Q, and once you read it, that’ll give you a real laugh.

I’ve been lucky enough to read the other stories in the collection and you’re in for a treat!

This book’s creation has not been an easy path. A kerfuffle earlier this year resulted in a change in editor and lineup, and a long delay in publication (almost a year!) It was wonderful having a chance to work with Paula Guran, and I’m pleased that proceeds from this anthology will be going to a charity that helps homeless LGBT teens and there are several stories in the collection featuring LGBT characters.

I hope to have other cover news soonity soon soon soon…

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This November, I’m taking part in an EPIC meeting of YA literature’s finest down in Charleston, South Carolina: YALLFest.

And I mean EPIC. Check out this author list:

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, David Levithan, Melissa de la Cruz, Heather Brewer, Gayle Forman, Kaleb Nation, Ellen Hopkins, Andrea Cremer, Beth Revis, Carrie Ryan, Isaac Marion, Sarah Rees Brennan, Kimberly Derting, Adele Griffin, Lisa Brown, Victoria Schwab, Michelle Hodkin, Kwame Alexander, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Saundra Mitchell, Diana Peterfreund, Caitlin Kittredge, Pseudonymous Bosch, and more!

On Friday there’s going to be master classes and roundtables. There are going to be SEVEN hourly panels with three authors each on Saturday, as well as booksignings, micro-fiction contests, live music, and lots of food, prizes, and other delights.

It’s all happening November 11 and 12, 2011 — so mark your calendars and get yourself down to South Carolina!

Here’s the current (not detailed — I’ll come back as soon as the final is posted) schedule.

PS: I *will* be giving away an ARC of For Darkness Shows the Stars there.

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1. clean out my bedroom
2. write a short story
3. clean out my office
4. proof SS #1: F
5. write approximately 35,000 words for the conclusion of Camp NaNoWriMo

Just kidding about that last one. If I do finish everything else, I will go back to my NaNo draft, but I bear no illusions that I’ll finish it, or even get 50k on it.

Still, I feel like I’ve really gotten into the swing of work this month. I feel like Q is finally on a regular schedule, and I’ve been productive and proud of my writing.For the last little-over-a-week, I’ve been doing the copyedits for For Darkness Shows the Stars, and reading it over again and making all those little this-is-the-last-time-I-swear adjustments just have me giddy all over again. I love this book so much. It makes me thrill, it makes me cry*, it makes me be totally unbearable with teasing you poor people since it won’t come out for another nine-plus months.

Nine. Months. Kill me now, y’all.

And the news does not get better from here, sadly. The anthology** I thought was coming out this summer, and then this winter? I just got a release date of March 2012 for the U.S. MARCH.

And I thought the Zombies vs. Unicorns paperback would be out soon, but Amazon is telling me April. And then I learned that the Ascendant paperback won’t be out until then either. And so I have absolutely nothing on the docket for 2011 (except for the “Best of” reprint) at all. Which makes me feel very sad, and dull, and thumb-twiddly. I know I shouldn’t be, since I do have a new novel and like five other things coming out in 2012, and I know this is my “just had a baby, things are still a bit topsy turvy” building year, but this is the first time in five years that I haven’t celebrated the summer with a new book release, so what I know and what I feel are not occupying the same space in my head right now.

The best method I’ve found to combat that, btw, is to work harder. So hopefully I can look back in December and go, “Yeah, I didn’t have a book out. But look, I wrote like three of them!”

Need to get on that.***

I leave you with this painting, shamelessly stolen from Lauren Dane’s tumblr, even though I’m almost positive this “Persuasion” has nothing to do with my Jane’s Persuasion:

Weirdly hot, right?

_________________

* I hope it makes you cry, too, but I have a sneaking suspicion I’m an easy mark in this case because frickin’ Persuasion makes me cry every single time I read it. So there are already all these strong Pavlovian Persuasion-crying associations in my brain.

** On the upside, I also just found out that William Sleator is going to be in it. WIlliam Sleator (rest in peace). Wiliam. Sleator! You guys. You guys. My mom recognized that name. Sailor Boy went, “You’re in an antho with William Sleator? He’s what got me into reading SF.” Which means William Sleator is responsible for me and Sailor Boy getting together, because when we met in college, it was bonding over SF. Which means WIlliam Sleator is also responsible for Queenie. And now I’m in an anthology with him, even though I will sadly never be able to meet him in person.

*** I have, however, written over 80,000 words this year on various works of fiction. I know. I didn’t believe it either until I looked at my word count meters. That’s like a whole book (But in my case, it’s half a book, then part of another book, then four short stories.)

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