April 2022 Deal Announcements

Adult Fiction

Author of THE UNBROKEN C.L. Clark’s WARMONGERS, in an epic fantasy set in a kingdom in a cycle of eternal war, two women—once lovers and warriors at arms—are set on a collision course when years after their separation, one is crowned king and the other vows to kill her, to Brit Hvide at Orbit, by Mary C. Moore at Kimberley Cameron & Associates (world).

Author of UNEXPECTED GOALS Kelly Farmer’s IT’S A FABULOUS LIFE, pitched as a sapphic retelling of the classic holiday movie as a second chance romance, in which a realtor puts her plans on hold again to help with her small town’s winter festival and, with the aid of angelic drag queens, reconnects with her high school crush, to Stacey Donovan at Hallmark, in a nice deal, for publication in fall 2023 (world English).

Arden Joy’s KEEP THIS OFF THE RECORD, pitched as a romantic comedy remix of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing that transforms ye olde damsels in distress into queer women, women of color, and women overcoming trauma, to Alexandria Brown at Rising Action, in an exclusive submission, for publication in January 2024 (world English).

Andie Burke’s COME FLY WITH ME, an opposites-attract romantic comedy about a female pilot and a woman who’s afraid of flying, who start fake dating after the woman saves a passenger’s life mid-flight and then goes viral, to Lisa Bonvissuto at St. Martin’s, in a very nice deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in fall 2023, by Mariah Nichols at D4EO Literary Agency (world).

Nicola Dinan‘s BELLIES, a queer coming-of-age story about two students who fall in love during their final year at university, only to find their relationship dramatically upended when one of them decides to transition, spanning London, Malaysia, and New York in the years after they graduate, pitched as Torrey Peters meets NORMAL PEOPLE, to Grace Towery at Hanover Square Press, in a pre-empt, by Monica MacSwan at Aitken Alexander (NA).

Author of A STAR IS BORED Byron Lane‘s BIG GAY WEDDING, a comedy of (mis)manners in which a young man returns home from Los Angeles to to his widowed mother’s farm in Louisiana with news of his upcoming nuptials—to a man—and the bigger surprise that the wedding will take place on the farm, pitched as The Birdcage meets Father of the Bride, to James Melia at Holt, for publication in summer 2023, by Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider/ICM (NA).

Author, folklorist, and photographer Piper CJ’s THE NIGHT AND ITS MOON, originally self-published, about orphans who are sold to the highest bidder—in this case, the madame of a notorious brothel; along with THE SUN AND ITS SHADE, THE GLOOM BETWEEN STARS and THE DAWN AND ITS LIGHT, in a sapphic/bi romantic epic fantasy series, to Christa Desir at Bloom Books, in a very nice deal, in a four-book deal, for publication starting in September 2022 (world English).

Alexandrine Ogundimu’s THE LONGEST SUMMER, in which a half-Nigerian party boy navigates a bisexual love triangle and is the primary suspect of a $10,000 cash theft in a decaying Indiana city, to Christoph Paul at Clash, in a nice deal, for publication in June 2023 (world English).

BURN IT ALL DOWN author Nicolas DiDomizio’s THE GAY BEST FRIEND, a summer comedy set on a beach following a gay millennial as he code-switches between the hyper-masculine and ultra-feminine worlds of his two soon-to-be-wed best friends, to Mary Altman at Sourcebooks, in a two-book deal, for publication in spring 2023 (world).

Audiobook narrator and self-published author Travis Baldree’s LEGENDS & LATTES, in which an orc barbarian decides to hang up her sword and open a fantasy coffee shop, to Georgia Summers at Tor, in a good deal, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Stevie Finegan at Zeno Agency (world).

Deputy director of the gender equality division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Iris Mwanza’s THE GOOD BOY, about the disappearance of a queer boy in Lusaka, Zambia, possibly at the hands of the police, and the young, inexperienced lawyer who fights a corrupt system to get justice for him, set against the backdrop of the Zambia’s political upheaval in the 1990s, to Graydon House, at auction.

Isa Arsen‘s SHOOT THE MOON, pitched as THE ATOMIC CITY GIRLS meets THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, about a queer female engineer at NASA working on the 1969 space race and her unusual discovery linked to her childhood in the 1940s, which explores the high human cost of scientific progress and the driving need for both intellectual fullfilment and romantic love, no matter the time and place, to Kate Dresser at Putnam, for publication in fall 2023, by Chris Bucci at Aevitas Creative Management (world).

Children’s Fiction

Author of the Norman the Goldfish series and the upcoming THE HOUSE THAT BABE RUTH BUILT Kelly Bennett’s RAINBOW KITE, stories of love, community, and family, about a nonbinary child following a kite on adventures to find community and acceptance; MONSTROUS MOE, in which a grumpy monster decides if a hug can help him be less grumpy; and MIA TAKES MANHATTAN, in which a cobra escapes the Bronx Zoo and travels the city before realizing she misses home, to Chrissy Willis at Young Dragons Press, in a nice deal, in a three-book deal, by Amy Brewer at Metamorphosis Literary Agency (US).

Michelle Mohrweis‘s YOUNG ENGINEERS, in which an autistic seventh grader, with a love of all things space, finds herself paired on an engineering project with her biggest crush, and both girls confront their messy family dynamics, feelings for one another, and high expectations, to Jonah Heller at Peachtree, in an exclusive submission, for publication in spring 2024, by Emily Forney at BookEnds (world).

Young Adult Fiction

Author of COOL FOR THE SUMMER and the forthcoming HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE Dahlia Adler‘s GOING BICOASTAL, pitched as a bi Sliding Doors, following a Jewish teen through two versions of the summer before senior year, one in NYC (with a cute girl) and one in L.A. (with a cute boy); and MY NAME IS EVERETT, a sunshine-meets-grump boarding school romance pitched as BEACH READ meets FOOLISH HEARTS, to Vicki Lame at Wednesday Books, in a very nice deal, in an exclusive submission, in a two-book deal, for publication in summer 2023 and summer 2024, by Patricia Nelson at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency (NA).

Benjamin Dean’s THE KING IS DEAD, a gay romantic thriller set against the backdrop of a reimagined royal family, about a newly crowned young Black king facing media scrutiny and blackmail, pitched as ACE OF SPADES meets RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE, to Erika Turner at Little, Brown Children’s, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, for publication in summer 2023, by Chloe Seager at Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency (NA).

Author of the forthcoming YOU, ME, AND OUR HEARTSTRINGS Melissa See’s LOVE LETTERS TO JOY CORVI, pitched as a contemporary retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac, in which a panromantic asexual girl with cerebral palsy who is determined to be valedictorian seeks love advice from an anonymous student at her academy; but she’s unknowingly writing to—and falling for—the last person she ever expected, to Tiffany Colon at Scholastic, for publication in summer 2023, by Emily Forney at BookEnds (world English).

Keezy Young’s graphic novel HELLO SUNSHINE, in which a boy returns from church camp to discover that his (secret) boyfriend has gone missing and now he must enlist an unlikely team of worried friends and family to find him; a teen drama that uses the atmosphere of a demon haunting to tell a story of mental health, healing, and romance, to Andrea Colvin at Little, Brown Children’s, for publication in 2025, by Kurestin Armada at Root Literary (world).

Rex Ogle writing as Rey Terciero’s DAN OF GREEN GABLES, pitched as a twist on ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, the story of a queer, half-Mexican teenager who is forced to live with his grandparents in rural Tennessee when his mother abandons him; with the help of his mawmaw and his new friends, he makes an unlikely home for himself at 1600 Green Gables, illustrated by Claudia Aguirre, to Elizabeth Lee at Penguin Workshop, for publication in summer 2025, by Brent Taylor at TriadaUS Literary Agency for the author, and by Kate McKean at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency for the illustrator (world).

Eugene Lee Yang‘s THE UNDERS, a queer epic fantasy in which a group of teens band together to stop a war between the human and the magical world, to Emily Settle at Feiwel and Friends, in a major deal, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in spring 2024, by Jessica Felleman at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency (NA).

Author of the forthcoming THE MANY HALF-LIVED LIVES OF SAM SYLVESTER Maya MacGregor’s THE EVOLVING TRUTH OF EVER-STRONGER WILL, about a nonbinary teen who, after watching their abusive mother die in front of them, seeks out a former foster mother who once was ready to adopt them, in a mystery about family, grief, and surviving an abusive parent even as their mother’s ghost seems to dog their every step, to Suzy Krogulski at Astra House, for publication in 2024, by Sara Megibow at kt literary (world English).

Edgar Award winner and Stonewall Honor author James Klise’s I’LL TAKE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE, a noir set in Chicago in the summer of 1934, in which a queer teen’s naive get-rich-quick scheme leads to deadly criminal consequences, to Elise Howard at Algonquin Young Readers, for publication in 2023, by Jennifer Laughran at Andrea Brown Literary Agency (world).

Victoria Wlosok’s debut HOW TO FIND A MISSING GIRL, about a 17-year-old amateur sleuth and her sapphic detective agency that investigates when her ex-girlfriend—notorious for creating a polarizing true-crime podcast about the sleuth’s missing sister—disappears too, to Alexandra Hightower at Little, Brown Children’s, for publication in fall 2023, by Jessica Errera at Jane Rotrosen Agency (world). Film: Becca Rodriguez at Gotham.

Non-Fiction

Inclusion advocate, educator, and the first openly transgender D1 men’s athlete Schuyler Bailar‘s HE/SHE/THEY: HOW WE TALK ABOUT GENDER AND WHY IT MATTERS, an inquiry into today’s gender landscape, laying the groundwork for productive conversations about gender on an individual and national level, pitched as in the vein of SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE, to Renee Sedliar at Hachette Go, at auction, by Susan Canavan at Waxman Literary Agency (NA).

Founder of the Ali Forney Center Carl Siciliano’s STRONG AS DEATH, SWEET AS LOVE, about the author’s work with homeless LGBTQ+ youths in New York City and his friendship with Ali Forney, a nonbinary youth whose compassionate life and tragic death on New York City’s streets inspired him to establish the Center and live a life of service and resistance, to Derek Reed at Convergent, at auction, for publication in summer 2023, by Jesseca Salky at Salky Literary Management, in association with Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency (NA).

Shilletha Curtis’s MOUNTAIN OF THE MOON, pitched as a Black lesbian WILD crossed with GIRL INTERRUPTED, tracing the author’s 2,193-mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail and intersectional quest to change the narrative of “hiking while Black” while confronting the roots of her lifelong depression, anxiety, PTSD and ADHD, to Jennifer Levesque at Andscape, in a good deal, in a pre-empt, by Lynn Johnston at Lynn Johnston Literary (world English).

 

Exclusive Cover Reveal: When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

I’ve been a huge Sacha Lamb fan since Avi Cantor Has Six Months to Live, so I am absolutely thrilled to be revealing the cover of When the Angels Left the Old Country, what publisher Levine Querido calls “the queer love child of Shalom Aleichem and Philip Roth”! It releases on October 18th, and here’s the story:

Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn’t have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young emigrants goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her.

Along the way the angel and demon encounter humans in need of their help, including Rose Cohen, whose best friend (and the love of her life) has abandoned her to marry a man, and Malke Shulman, whose father died mysteriously on his way to America.

But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they’ve left behind. Medical exams (and demons) at Ellis Island. Corrupt officials, cruel mob bosses, murderers, poverty. The streets are far from paved with gold.

With cinematic sweep and tender observation, Sacha Lamb presents a totally original drama about individual purpose, the fluid nature of identity, and the power of love to change and endure.

And here’s the striking cover, with both art and direction by Will Staehle!

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | IndieBound

Sacha Lamb is a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow in young adult fiction, and graduated in Library and Information Science and History from Simmons University. Sacha lives in New England with a miniature dachshund mix named Anzu Bean. When The Angels Left The Old Country is their debut novel. Find them on Twitter @mosslamb.

Fave Five: YA Audiobooks with Transmasc MCs

All links are Libro.fm affiliate.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, narrated by Avi Roque

A Million Quiet Revolutions by Robin Gow, narrated by Salem Corwin

Act Cool by Tobly McSmith, narrated by Shaan Dasani

The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon, narrated by Dani Martineck

Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee, narrated by Logan Rozos

Bonus: Upcoming in 2022 are Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White, narrated by Shaan Dasani, Graham Halstead, and Avi Roque (June 7), Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min, narrated by Alejandro Ruiz and Jensen Silvio (July 26), The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas, narrated by André Santana (September 6), and Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore, narrated by Avi Roque and Kyla Garcia (September 6)!

Happy Lesbian Visibility Day 2022!

This post only includes books that were not featured in past posts. For even more visibly lesbian goodness, check out posts from 2021, 2020, and 2019, too!

Books to Read Now

D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding by Chencia C. Higgins

56918560. sy475 Instant I Do could be Kris Zavala’s big break. She’s right on the cusp of really making it as an influencer, so a stint on reality TV is the perfect chance to elevate her brand. And $100,000 wouldn’t hurt, either.

D’Vaughn Miller is just trying to break out of her shell. She’s sort of neglected to come out to her mom for years, so a big splashy fake wedding is just the excuse she needs.

All they have to do is convince their friends and family they’re getting married in six weeks. If anyone guesses they’re not for real, they’re out. Selling their chemistry on camera is surprisingly easy, and it’s still there when no one else is watching, which is an unexpected bonus. Winning this competition is going to be a piece of wedding cake.

But each week of the competition brings new challenges, and soon the prize money’s not the only thing at stake. A reality show isn’t the best place to create a solid foundation, and their fake wedding might just derail their relationship before it even starts.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | IndieBound

Continue reading Happy Lesbian Visibility Day 2022!

New Release Spotlight: Nothing Burns as Bright as You by Ashley Woodfolk

A toxic obsessive romantic best-friendship between two Black girls who know that to actually give in and get together would spark the most dangerous flame, and who also set real ones together? A meditation on how not all friendships are meant to last, even if it’s the most compelling relationship of your life? One of the most stunning novels in verse you’ll ever read? If you haven’t yet picked up Nothing Burns as Bright As You, the only better time than now is yesterday.

56654666. sy475 Two girls.
One wild and reckless day.
Years of a tumultuous history unspooling
like thin, fraying string in the hours after they set a fire.

They were best friends. Until they became more.
Their affections grew. Until the blurry lines became dangerous.
Over the course of a single day, the depth of their past, the confusion of their present, and the unpredictability of their future is revealed.
And the girls will learn that hearts, like flames, aren’t so easily tamed.

It starts with a fire.
How will it end?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | IndieBound

Fave Five: Queer YA Superhero Novels, Part II

For part I, click here.

The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune

Faith: Taking Flight by Julie Murphy

I am Not Starfire by Mariko Tamaki (text) and Yoshi Yoshitani (illustration)

Super Adjacent by Crystal Cestari

Cute Mutants by S.J. Whitby

Bonus: Can’t have superheroes with super villains… Check out Harley Quinn: Reckoning by Rachael Allen for one of those!

Exclusive Cover+Excerpt Reveal: Dead Letters from Paradise by Ann McMan

Today is a bit of a starry-eyed moment for me, because I get to reveal the cover for the newest book by Ann McMan, author of my very first lesfic read, the fantastic Dust! This new book is a historical mystery set in the south called Dead Letters from Paradise, and it releases from Bywater Books on June 28, 2022! Here’s the story:

The year is 1960, and Gunsmoke is the most popular show on TV. Elvis Presley tops the Billboard charts, and a charismatic young senator named John F. Kennedy is running for president. And in North Carolina, four young Black men sit down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter and demand service. Enter Esther Jane (EJ) Cloud, a forty-something spinster who manages the Dead Letter Office at the Winston-Salem post office. EJ leads a quiet life in her Old Salem ancestral home and spends her free time volunteering in the town’s 18th-century hortus medicus garden.

One sunny Spring morning, EJ’s simple life is turned upside down when the town’s master gardener unceremoniously hands her a stack of handwritten letters that have all been addressed to a nonexistent person in the garden. This simple act sets in motion a chain of events that will lead EJ on a life-altering quest to uncover the identity of the mysterious letter writer―and into a surprising head-on confrontation with the harsh realities of the racial injustice that is as deeply rooted in the life of her community as the ancient herbs cultivated in the Moravian garden.

When EJ is forced to read the letters to look for clues about the anonymous sender, what she discovers are lyrical tales of a forbidden passion that threaten to unravel the simple contours of her unexamined life. EJ’s official quest soon morphs into a journey of self-discovery as she becomes more deeply enmeshed in the fate of the mysterious letter writer, “Dorothea.” Her surprising accomplice in solving the mystery of the letters becomes one, Harrie Hart: a savvy, street smart ten-year-old, wielding an eye patch and a limitless supply of aphorisms. Together, Harrie and EJ make seminal pilgrimages to the tiny town of Paradise to try and uncover the identity of the mercurial sender and, ultimately, learn a better way to navigate the changing world around them.

And here’s the cover striking cover, designed by TreeHouse Studio!

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | IndieBound

But wait, there’s more! Read on for your first glimpse inside Dead Letters from Paradise by Ann McMan…

After walking Harrie back to Fay Marian’s, I resolved to make it an early night. I changed into my nightgown and robe and sat down in Daddy’s chair with my book. I had only a few chapters left to read, and I was determined to finish it this evening. But I was finding it hard to concentrate. Every time Della Street appeared in a scene, I thought about Fay Marian’s “sultry” comment. And that naturally led me to recall the passage of the letter I’d read earlier.

Her intimate touch was like the first bright bloom of Angelica . . .

It was uncanny. Angelica was one of the herbs we cultivated in the hortus medicus. The Moravians had revered the plant for its numerous healing properties. According to Evelyn Haas, its uses went beyond compounds that treated typical maladies like catarrh, dyspepsia, and insomnia. In his vast colonial-era compendium, Philadelphia apothecary Johann Sauer had noted the herb’s special ability to “bring down the menses” for distressed women facing problem—or unwanted—pregnancies. Evelyn once winked and confided in me that Angelica was also compounded into a topical cream that proved efficacious for treating premature ejaculation.

“So, one can say the early Moravians had everything covered—coming and going.”

Evelyn had an almost preternatural fascination with rumors and legends that hinted at a few more lurid aspects to early Moravian communal life—including veneration of homoerotic worship and obsession with the wounds of Christ. And she loved to draw parallels between those whispered stories and the eclectic healing properties of some of the herbs cultivated in the hortus medicus.

Angelica, with its explosive globe-like clusters of flowers, was no exception.

Of course, Angelica had also been used to ward off witches. In my mind, that attribute went hand in hand with Evelyn’s colorful description of the herb’s more prurient uses.

I forced my attention back to the novel. Della Street was busily engaged using her . . . charms . . . to wrangle information out of a distracted travel agent.

Its slender tendrils reached deep inside and laid claim to all my hidden longing.

In frustration, I put the book aside. It was ridiculous. I drummed my fingers against the big, rolled arm of Daddy’s chair. Reading the rest of the letter would accomplish nothing. And bringing it home with me, even unwittingly, was a serious breach of protocol. And even if that hadn’t been true, giving in to an unseemly impulse would make me no better than . . . than a child, blowing a tin whistle to torment a neighbor’s dog.

And yet . . .

Before I could talk myself out of it, I got to my feet and strode across the room to retrieve the letter from my bag. I stood there in the near dark, tapping it against my hand as I deliberated.

Trust me, Lottie had said. You need to read this. Twice. Maybe more.

Even though I feigned offense, I knew exactly what Lottie had referred to. I did withhold myself from the realm of sensual experience. It wasn’t something I intended to suppress—it just seemed to happen naturally. I wasn’t a prude. Not really, I thought. I’d had many friends during my years at Salem College. And I’d learned firsthand about the carnal exploits of some of my female classmates—including the lonely aftermath of nonconsensual sexual encounters, panic-inducing pregnancy scares, and even tales of their occasional Sapphic experimentations with other girls. The more I learned, the less engaged I became. For me, it was tied more to a loss of control than it was to any innate fear of the experience. It wasn’t that I was unaware of how vast and prevalent the forbidden realm of sensual experience was: it was more that I passively chose to ignore it.

But now I was finding it impossible to ignore the letter I held in the dim light of my small foyer.

I had two choices. I could return the letter to its resting place inside my bag and go watch Adventures in Paradise. Or I could give in to yet another impulse and read the rest of the letter.

It was the irony of the TV show Adventures in Paradise that finally tipped the scales for me. I carried the letter back into the living room and sat down to read it. Only this time, I didn’t sit in Daddy’s chair. That felt vaguely . . . unseemly.

I unfolded the pages and resumed reading from where I’d left off earlier.

Its slender tendrils reached deep inside and laid claim to all my hidden longing. Together we became one with the garden. Our fresh young bodies twined together amidst the rows of young plants, feeling the warmth of the early summer sun on our backs and inhaling the sweet, intoxicating fragrance of the White Rose of York—the sacred smell of heaven. We surrendered the first fruits of our youth, vitality, and promise to each other. And as I tasted her freshness, laid bare before me in perfect harmony with all of nature, I imagined I was at last seeing the face of God. 

Why, Mary Ann, would you allow me to know such completeness—such blissful perfection—only to deny me its fruition? What possible good can now be served by the fate you have prescribed for me? Why withhold all meaning, possibility, and happiness from me, Mary Ann? Why?

Sorrowfully,

Dorothea

I carefully refolded the pages and returned them to the envelope before realizing that my hands were shaking. I sat still for the next half hour, waiting for my head to clear and my agitation to subside.

Who was Dorothea? And what power over her did this mysterious Mary Ann have?

None of it made the least bit of sense. The only possible connection between the letter and the garden appeared to be the plants where the two women had . . .

Had what?

I could scarcely allow myself to name what Dorothea had described.

Had had whatever kind of encounter the writer was describing.

Clearly, Dorothea had some kind of unfinished business with the woman named Mary Ann—and with the other, unnamed woman who’d been her participant in those passionate encounters.

But Evelyn insisted there had never been a Mary Ann affiliated with the gardens. So why did Dorothea send her letter there?

The clock on the mantel chimed. It was a quarter past 10 p.m. I’d been sitting in the living room for more than an hour. And tomorrow was a workday—a workday in which I’d have to confront more of Lottie’s shrewd scrutiny. She’d know I’d read the letter. And now it seemed inevitable that we’d have to read them all. Just the thought of that filled me with an emotion I couldn’t identify. But it certainly wasn’t anything approximating ease.

I returned the letter to my bag and turned off the lights before heading to bed.

In the midst of so much confusion, the only thing I was sure about was that sleep would not come easily.

***

(c) Erica Lawson

Ann McMan is the two-time Lambda Literary Award-winning author of twelve novels and two short story collections. She is a four-time Independent Publisher (IPPY) medalist, a Foreword Reviews INDIES medalist, a nine-time recipient of Golden Crown Literary Society Awards, and a laureate of the Alice B. Foundation for her outstanding body of work. She lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Fave Five: Queer Jewish YA Fantasy

The Spy with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke (Historical)

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros (Historical)

From Dust, a Flame by Rebecca Podos (Contemporary)

This Rebel Heart by Katherine Locke (Historical)

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb (Historical)

Bonus: For queer adult Jewish fantasy, check out Shira Glassman’s Mangoverse series and The Light of the Midnight Stars by Rena Rossner.

Exclusive Cover Reveal: Born Andromeda by K.M. Watts

Today on the site we’re revealing the cover of Born Andromeda by K.M. Watts, a space-pirate adventure YA romance releasing from Interlude Press on November 15, 2022! Here’s the story:

She was destined for a royal life—until galactic pirates changed her destiny.

Being eighteen is difficult, especially when you’re a cyborg and heir to the entire kingdom of the Moon. Disillusioned with royal life, Princess Andromeda dreams of nothing but freedom and adventure outside the protective dome of royalty. But when her parents arrange her marriage to an Earthen prince, she is forced to put her kingdom before her dreams of independence.

While traveling to Earth, Andromeda’s ship is attacked by galactic pirates led by her father’s sworn enemy, the Lord Captain Bran. Taken prisoner, Andromeda realizes that her captors are unaware of her true identity and sees an opportunity: To best her enemies, she may have to join them.

And here’s the luminous cover, designed by C.B. Messer!


Preorder: Interlude Press | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Bookshop | IndieBound

K.M. Watts is a debut novelist who first dreamed of becoming an author when she won her school’s Young Author Award at the age of five. She enjoys reading and writing YA fantasy and sci-fi, though she also dabbles with YA romantic thrillers. In her free time, she enjoys canyon hiking in her home state of Arizona.

Writing About Ghosts: a Guest Post by Sanctuary Author Andi C. Buchanan

Please welcome author Andi C. Buchanan to the site today, to talk about writing about ghosts and specifically doing so in their brand-new contemporary fantasy Sanctuary, which released this weekfrom Robot Dinosaur Press! Here’s the story:

Morgan’s home is a sanctuary for ghosts.

The once-grand, now dilapidated old house they live in has become a refuge for their found family—Morgan’s partner Araminta, an artist with excellent dress sense; Theo, a ten-year-old with an excess of energy; quiet telekinesthetic pensioner Denny—as well as the ghosts who live alongside them. All people who once needed sanctuary for their queer, neurodivergent selves.

Now they offer that safety to the dead as well as the living.

When a collection of ghosts trapped in old bottles are delivered to their door, something from the past is unleashed. A man who once collected ghosts – a man who should have died centuries before – suddenly has the house under his control. Morgan must trust their own abilities, and their hard-won sense of self, to save their home, their family, and the woman they love.

Buy it: Books2Read

And here’s the post by author Andi C. Buchanan!

Somehow, I keep writing about ghosts.

In From a Shadow Grave (Paper Road Press, 2019), I took a local ghost story, and imagined the futures a murdered teenager could have had: if she’d survived, if things had changed, or if her ghost had been freed from the road tunnel it haunts.

Now, in Sanctuary (Robot Dinosaur Press, 2022), I tell the story of a queer, neurodivergent found family who live in a haunted house, how they live alongside ghosts.

Both these stories are fundamentally queer at heart, and the link is no accident.

When I was a small child we lived, for a few years, near Shibden Hall in the north of England, a large old house not unlike the setting for Sanctuary. I remember family meet-ups in the gardens, running round on the lawns, hiding behind hedges. We toured the old house at least once, but it was cheaper to access just the gardens. I was in my twenties before I realised the hall’s most famous resident was Anne Lister, often described as the “first modern lesbian”and more recently  inspiration for the Gentleman Jack TV series.

I don’t think it was a history actively concealed from me, so much as an indication that queer people need to look so much harder for their histories, and they can be hard to find even when you’re really close.

Later, my time at school was spent under a law derived from – though stricter than Britain’s Section 28. In practice, the impact of that was to ban any positive mention of queer people in schools. Even though I had some excellent history teachers, there was no chance of queer history making its way into our discussions. We had the infamous picture of the burning of Hirschfield’s library in our textbooks and were told in generic terms that the Nazis burned books they didn’t like.

If ghosts exist then they are a direct connection to our history, one that can’t be legislated away, one that we don’t have to search for. Queer people still need our ghosts.

And then, of course, there’s having to live in communities where death is so common. The threat of being buried or commemorated under the wrong name. The frequent loss of religious beliefs around death – or being told you will be unwelcome in any afterlife you believe in.

I’ve long felt that those of us queer people who are older millenials, born in the early to mid eighties, occupy an almost liminal space in our relationship to queer history and culture; the last ones to experience being entirely shut out from information, and the first to have the experience that we could never be shut out. And sometimes it feels like I’m forever on one side of that boundary and the other doesn’t seem quite real.

And so I write about ghosts. Ghosts that seem to be from a different side of a world that isn’t so far away. Ghosts that are sometimes overtly queer – or were, before death – and sometimes not, but all carry with them the possibility of a link to the past, a sense of connection that resonates for those looking for queer history.

Ghosts are the fleeting glimpse of a history we have the privilege of looking at, but only sometimes, in unexpected places. We can’t guarantee we will always be able to find it. Sometimes it is translucent, distorted – we can see parts of it, but not the whole, have to rely on guesses and assumptions. We have to face up to the inaccuracies our assumptions bring. We can’t promise it will stay. We tell each other what we have seen. Sometimes we are scared. We try not to forget what we have seen.

***

Andi C. Buchanan lives just north of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Winner of a Sir Julius Vogel Award, their genre-blending novella From a Shadow Grave explores a historical murder, the legends surrounding it, and what might have been. Andi’s short fiction has previously been published in Fireside, Cossmass Infinities, Apex, and more. You can find Andi at https://andicbuchanan.org or on twitter @andicbuchanan.