Book Release Day! MIRAGE and POISON

The second book in my Above World series officially makes its way into the world today, but before I get to that, I want to talk about Bridget Zinn and her YA debut Poison, also releasing today.

Bridget died from cancer in May 2011 at the age of 33, before getting to see her debut book published. I never had the opportunity to meet her, but I think I would have liked her. Her bio says:

Bridget wanted to make people laugh and hoped readers would enjoy spending time with the characters she created. As a librarian/writer she loved books with strong young women with aspirations. She also felt teens needed more humorous reads. She really wanted to write a book with pockets of warmth and happiness and hoped that her readers’ copies would show the watermarks of many bath time reads.

Yes, I’m sure I would have liked her. And I’m guessing you would have, too. If you want to honor Bridget and help make her book release day a special one for her friends and family, please take a moment and check out Poison. Kirkus says:

No grimdark teen fantasy or angst-y heroines here; just a frothy confection of a fairy tale featuring poisoners, princesses, perfumers and pigs, none of whom are exactly what they appear (except maybe the pigs)…. Good silly fun—a refreshing antidote to a genre overflowing with grit and gloom.

That sounds like my kind of book!

MIRAGE

Now what do I say about my own book release? I have such complicated feelings about Mirage, the second in the trilogy, that I’ve written and deleted four different paragraphs so far. Let’s just say that it was a hard book to write, that it contains some of the best scenes I’ve ever written, and that I hope readers enjoy it.

Here’s how I dedicated Mirage:

I’d rather not explain that first part, because I think it has a lot of meanings and I wouldn’t want to exclude the one that’s most relevant to anyone who reads this. It’s a hard thing to walk between worlds, no matter what those worlds might be.

I also dedicated the book to Christopher East, my partner, who’s been with me for over six and a half years. He was there when I got the first ideas for this series, he’s been there through all the drafts, and he continues to support and encourage me every day. As a writer, he helped me with plot issues and character arcs and world-building. When I was on deadline, he did things like make sure the bills were paid and the cats were fed. (Heck, he fed me, too, most days.) Chris talked me through slumps, sometimes at 2 in the morning, and he read each chapter as soon as I finished it, no matter the time of day or night.

One of the ways I said thank you to Chris was by naming the character Rollin in Mirage after a character from Chris’s favorite TV show, the original Mission: Impossible. The Rollin in my book does NOT look like this:

I thank a lot of other people in the Acknowledgments section of Mirage, but I’ll quote just the last paragraph here, as it applies to all of you:

Thanks to my friends, family, and fellow writers who’ve supported me on this journey. If I’m doing my job right, you already know how much I treasure you.

If you live near Los Angeles, I’ll be having a launch party at 2pm on March 23rd at Once Upon A Time in Montrose, CA. Please come help me celebrate and support a great indie bookstore at the same time.