On the 24th of September, which is tomorrow for me, you can purchase The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht.
I am not by any accounts an unbiased bystander. I first met Jenn in Homestuck fandom, never knowing that she was the one sent by the prophecy to later write the Epilogues. At the time, we just took a lot of joy in talking about what it would be like if Terezi went to law school. I have had the honour of having written as her co-writer on Promstuck and Herobound – I’m sorry to say that the best thing we ever wrote together never went public, but I assure you it was rad – and having my debut novel and her debut novella drop in the same month is like having our children get married, except that in this case I will say that although it is usually “X and Y don’t deserve to have to marry Gideon and Harrow,” this is the only case where I will say: Gideon and Harrow don’t deserve having to marry Florian and Johann. Gideon and Harrow have suffered enough.
For me, there’s lots I could say, but I’ll only say this: Giesbrecht writes like a Jim Steinman song feels.
As for the book itself, I wrote this to her back when I got to read it early (which is my undeserved prize for having attempted to force Giesbrecht to write a story with me where Jade Harley was a pregnant superhero having shacked up with Equius and Nepeta), and I wrote thus:
[This story is like] “What if Prince Eric pulled up Ursula instead and pushed him continuously over a cliff and wrote little notes carefully in his diary the whole time”
Get it. It’s great. I love Florian, and I love Johann, but nonetheless they are the worst fucking train wrecks in the world. We have the same editor, and just imagine what a shellshocked ruin he is at this point. If at all possible, for safeguarding your own future entertainment, buy this book.
Hey! I have a story out this month in Apex Magazine! I’m really proud of this one, which I actually had the chance to workshop with my favourite author, Samuel R. Delany, while I was at Clarion.
If you like my work, please check this out and consider leaving a comment, buying the issue or simply re-blogging this post to support my work. Thanks~ <3
Lazarus & The Amazing Kid Phoenix / Interview With The Author
My skin was still charred when I first woke up. I raised my hands above my head and watched as it bubbled and leaked, as it grew pink — then brown — between the charcoal scabs. By nightfall I was covered in an armor of abscess. I spent six hours popping yellowed sacks of pus to reveal my new skin, baby-soft and unmarked.
“What do you remember?” the Old Man asked me when I could speak. My tongue was still numb from blistering, my eyes hazy and cheeks raw from where the skin had sloughed off in rubbery sheets. I didn’t remember, I tried to say. It wasn’t true — I saw glimpses of it in short, painful bursts. Tiny, knife-shaped headaches that ground through my skull like diamond. I remembered some ugly words and the grate of a lighter being clicked to life over and over again. I remembered tripping over my shoelaces and hearing a song somewhere in the distance, a hard grind of sax and bass. Funk was a false promise of kindness. Will it go ‘round in circles? Billy Preston was asking me. Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
“I burned,” I told him. “They freaking burned me. I died burning.”
“A lot of things die burning,” Old Man Gasper said. “But not you.”
I know that if you’re following me, you probably know Jennifer for her fannish work, and I reiterate that her original work is jolly bloody good. So glad to see this in Apex.