Amanda was at Book Expo America 2019, and she has books to recommend, titles to squee about, and a definite predilection for candles and reading cover blurbs, too.
We talk about her impressions of this year’s BEA, who it’s for, and how it’s changed over her time working in various parts of publishing. We also talk about how much Amanda likes reading blurbs on the covers of new books.
We talk about so many upcoming releases that aren’t available yet, so we’re very sorry in advance. Key terms to listen for: “claustrophobic thriller” and “snakes are having a moment.”
Plus we talk about what Amanda’s reading right now.
CW/TW: Amanda tells some stories about wrangling snakes in her childhood – so if you’re not on board with snake discussion, heads up at 39 minutes in, when Amanda mentions snake stories, you might want to skip ahead about a minute total.
So, what about you? Would you want to attend BEA? Do you like meetings? Do you read blurbs from other writers on the covers of books? I’m curious!
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Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:
We also mentioned:
- Taza Chocolate
- Wick & Fable Candles
- Chapters 1 and 2 of Gideon the Ninth on Tor.com
- Aarya Marsden’s post on Anticipated Reads
- The Welcome to Night Vale podcast
- The Bright Sessions podcast
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This Episode's Music
Our music is provided by Sassy Outwater. Thanks, Sassy!
This track is from the Peatbog Fairies’ live album, Live @ 25, and it is seriously fun.
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Transcript
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[music]
Sarah Wendell: Well hello there, and welcome to episode number 354 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. With me today is Amanda, and we are going to talk about BEA. Amanda was at Book Expo America 2019, and she has books to recommend, titles to squee about, a definite predilection for candles, and she also likes to read cover blurbs, which is not a thing I knew. Key terms to listen for in this interview: “claustrophobic thriller” and “snakes are having a moment.” Plus, of course, we talk about what Amanda is reading right now.
Now, I do need to issue a mild content warning: Amanda tells some stories about wrangling snakes in her childhood – like actual snakes, not terrible people – so if you’re not on board with snake discussion, around thirty-nine minutes in, when Amanda mentions snake stories, you might want to skip ahead about a minute total.
Otherwise, we’re just going to squee about books and talk about BEA. So I’m curious: do you want to attend BEA? Do you like meetings? Amanda really likes meetings; me, not so much. Do you read blurbs from other writers on the cover of books? What grabs you about a book cover? You can tell us, ‘cause I love hearing from you. Our email address is [email protected], and you can call and leave a message or tell me a bad joke – I love those – at 1-201-371-3272.
This week’s podcast episode and podcast transcript are brought to you by our wonderful Patreon community. If you have supported the show with a monthly pledge of any amount, thank you. You are helping me keep the show going, you make sure that every episode has a transcript, and you’re just lovely! I very much appreciate your support! If you would like to join our Patreon community, it would be most excellent if you did. Have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. Monthly pledges start at one dollar a month, and each pledge helps me keep going, so thank you so much in advance for considering, and thank you for being part of our Patreon community.
I do have a compliment this week. I love this! Okay.
To Sonya M.: You know how when you’re really thirsty and tired and someone hands you a glass of something cool and perfect to drink? You know that feeling? That is what it’s like for your friends when they talk to you each day.
If you would like a compliment of your very own, have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. It is one of the reward tiers, and you would get a personally crafted, heartfelt compliment from yours truly! I have a lot of fun developing them too, so you know, if you would like one, definitely jump in.
The music you are listening to is provided by Sassy Outwater. I will have information at the end of the podcast as to who this is. I have a preview of what’s coming up on Smart Bitches, and I have a really bad joke because I love those. I also have – do not worry – links to every book we discuss in this episode, and there are so many of them. All of them are coming out within the next year, and a lot of them were discovered at BEA, so if you’ve got serious book shopping feelings, we will help you out. We’ll have links to all of the things that we talked about in the show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.
But without any further delay, let’s get on with this podcast. On with my conversation with Amanda about BEA 2019.
[music]
Sarah: How much do you just love the Javits Center?
Amanda: [Laughs] I don’t. I don’t love the Javits Center.
Sarah: I hate it. I hate it so much! It is the worst! It is the literal worst. What led you to go back?
Amanda: I think this time – BEA is manageable. There aren’t as many people as there are for BookCon.
Sarah: And you didn’t stay for BookCon, right?
Amanda: Dear. Lord. No.
[Laughter]
Amanda: I did not. Didn’t stay for BookCon. I went last year, and I think they’re, like, building it bigger and bigger each year.
Sarah: BookCon?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: Oh God.
Amanda: Yeah, they’re doing, like, more stuff, and – so I’m curious. My roommate, who works in publishing, she was an exhibitor. Yeah, I was talking to her, and we agree that it’s not, BEA wasn’t as big as last year, and we’re curious to see how the two are going to change in relation to each other in the next few years.
Sarah: So how was BEA not as big? Were there fewer exhibitors there?
Amanda: Fewer exhibitors; a lot of the people that I know in publishing, back when I used to work in publishing, don’t go anymore. I don’t think – for example, I used to work at Houghton Mifflin. They didn’t have a booth last year, and I don’t think they have a booth this year. Instead, they might just send their publicist down to do meetings instead of, you know, having an exhibit. And some of the booths were smaller. Like, Penguin Random House’s booth wasn’t as big –
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: – as last year. And last year they had, like, a table that they were selling books at. The Strand, which is a bookstore in New York, had, like, a section where they sold stuff at, and now I think those sorts of things are being saved for BookCon, and they’re not even bothering to set it up for BEA.
Sarah: Wow.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: If, right, for anyone who’s listening who, who might not know what BEA is, BEA is Book Expo America, and it is the major industry convention for the publishing industry.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: It used to be that at all of the book buyers and people who bought books to put in places to sell them to other people would go to BEA and see all the things, and there’s huge banners of, like, massive banners in the, in the, in the glass lobby of the Javits, of big titles and big authors and big, you know, big books that are coming in the, in the, in the next year, but I look at it and I think, aren’t there like nine total book buyers now?
[Laughter]
Amanda: A lot of indie booksellers go, and a lot of librarians go, and then, like, media. They let –
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: – they let us riffraff in.
Sarah: [Laughs] Yeah, and we’re weird media, too. We’re, we’re in various different places of –
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: – media. So what do you go for, and what did you like this year?
Amanda: I go for meetings. I like meeting with people that I work with online a lot? Like, we correspond and work with various publicists on their books, and this is one of the few times that I can have face-to-face time with these people and, you know, sit down, and I also get to meet new people. For example, when you register, I think you can opt in to have your contact information listed on something. [Laughs] I don’t know where it’s housed, but other publicists get access to the media list and can reach out to you.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: So I met with Little, Brown and Company, their young readers imprint, and I met with the Penguin Random House young readers imprint, and before I hadn’t worked with any of them on titles; I didn’t even have, like, a contact at that imprint, so it was nice to make new connections and be able to meet with people. I liked that a lot. Yeah, I’m one of those weirdoes that loves meetings.
Sarah: Yeah, I’m just sitting here shaking my head like, no, no.
Amanda: Yeah, I love ‘em.
Sarah: No.
Amanda: But apart from that, one thing that I really loved is something that they did new this year called Unbound, and it was a section on the floor of the Javits Center that –
Sarah: Oh, it looked so cool!
Amanda: Yeah – that had all, like, the sideline sales stuff. So if you go into, like, a bookstore and they’re selling, like, you know, bookish socks and candles and, you know, pins and jewelry, so those book-related things that aren’t books, and when we got there Thursday morning, the Unbound section was giving out free mimosas?
Sarah: Those are smart people right there.
Amanda: Yeah. Just to loosen your inhibitions. [Laughs]
Sarah: Those are really smart people right there.
Amanda: Yeah. And there was a Taza Chocolate booth, because I –
Sarah: Ah!
Amanda: – Taza’s local to me in Somerville, but they do show up a lot in the local bookstores here, and they were, like, giving out free chocolate samples and – it was really cool. My favorite online candle company, Wick and Fable, was exhibiting there. I got to meet and chat with the guy who makes all of their scents. That was kind of neat.
Sarah: Ooh, what did you learn?
Amanda: Well, he was just, like, talking to me about the different scents that he’s made and what some of, his favorite one was, and so he was telling me that the Slytherin candle they have became really difficult to make because it’s a very minty scent, and he’s like, I identify as a Slytherin, but I hate making this candle, because the mint is so intense that I get, like, headaches from having to make a huge batch of them.
[Laughter]
Amanda: He’s like, I don’t know why I didn’t make it something more pleasant. And then he talked to me about how he changed the scent for one of the candles; it’s now like a more pineapple scent, when before I think it was, like, floral or musky, and – it was just interesting, like, talking to him. And, you know, I bought candles and didn’t have to pay for shipping, so that was nice. [Laughs]
Sarah: So they were selling stuff in the Unbound section.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: They were also taking orders for things to, like –
Amanda: Wholesale orders.
Sarah: – to order for your store?
Amanda: Yes. I don’t have a store, so I was just buying for myself. And then some of them, I believe, were also staying through BookCon. I think a, a lot of the candle companies were staying through till BookCon because BookCon is very YA heavy.
Sarah: It really is.
Amanda: Yeah, and YA gets a lot of the cool shit in general.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: So majority of, like, the candles are, like, YA-themed, and it made sense for them to, to stick around. Some didn’t, weren’t staying. I know Taza was leaving the same night I was, but I’m curious to see how, like, Unbound did for BookCon, ‘cause I think that was, like, the first year there was a designated section for, like, those extra things.
But those were the two things that I liked the most, was meeting with people that I just kind of correspond with via email for –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – you know, 363 days out of the year – [laughs] –
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: – and, like, the new Unbound section was really cool, and, you know, it, hurting on my wallet. [Laughs]
Sarah: Yeah. I can understand that.
Amanda: And it was try-, I’m trying not to purchase any books in, in the month of May, and I stuck to that, but it also helped that both BEA and Book Lovers Con happened in May, so I did get new books, but I didn’t have to pay for them.
[Laughter]
Sarah: I liked your picture when you got home of, like, a whole stack of mailers, and you were like, I was only gone for three days! Yep! That’s my –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – that’s my table.
Amanda: Yep. But, like, I think there’s about ten of them that I got while I was gone. I felt bad. My, our neighbor is so nice, and instead of just leaving them out on the porch, he kind of sandwiched them between our screen door and our front door? But there were so many that they just kind of like climbed from the bottom, like, up between the two doors? [Laughs] And so when you opened the screen door they just kind of all, like, tumbled, tumbled out, but – yeah, so those things were great, and of course BEA is all about new books coming out and what people are excited for.
Sarah: So tell me about the things you learned about, in addition to candles, that you’re excited about.
Amanda: I have a stack next to me.
Sarah: Bring it on.
Amanda: Yeah. There’s one that’s not in this stack that, like, Fate was not on my side to get. I had like maybe two or three opportunities to get it, and it just never worked out, so I’m going to try to work some email magic and get a copy, but it’s called Gideon the Ninth, and all you need to know about Gideon the Ninth is lesbian necromancers in space.
Sarah: Uh, I, um, I –
Amanda: Yeah. That’s all you need to know.
Sarah: Yeah!
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Lesbian necromancers –
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: – in space.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: Okay, I didn’t know I needed those three words to be together –
Amanda: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: – but that’s amazing, except where are they going to find dead people in space? Are they just floating around?
Amanda: I don’t know!
Sarah: Wow. Lesbian necromancers in space.
Amanda: I’m very excited about it. I think there are maybe two or three opportunities to get a book, but at BEA, there are two ways you can pretty much get free books.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: You line up an hour or so in advance –
Sarah: I’ve seen that.
Amanda: – or you’re just super lucky when they drag out the carton of books to just drop onto the floor, and you’re –
Sarah: Right, so at the be- –
Amanda: – in the right place at the right time.
Sarah: Right. Or you’re there on the last day, they found a box that they hadn’t given out, and they just start handing them out ‘cause they don’t want to bring them back.
Amanda: Don’t want to take it back. So yeah, and usually I was in meetings or some of the things were ticketed and I missed, like, the ticket drop, and – yeah, Fate was conspiring against me, and for some reason the world doesn’t want me to have – [laughs] – lesbian necromancers in space.
Sarah: So you didn’t get a copy?
Amanda: No, but I’m going to, going to try to send out some emails on Monday, once everyone is back.
Sarah: All right, so what publisher is this?
Amanda: Tor.
Sarah: So tell me the name of this book again?
Amanda: Gideon – G-I-D-E-O-N – the Ninth.
Sarah: By Tamsyn Muir.
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: Well, you can read chapters one and two on Tor.com.
Amanda: Ooh!
Sarah: Yeah. Wow. That, that’s one of those things where you tell me the, the, the hook and I’m like, I didn’t know that that was a thing that I would want, but now it’s a thing that I want.
Amanda: I love books that can kind of like be boiled down into, like, a weird Mad Labs description, and you’re like –
Sarah: Right? [Laughs]
Amanda: – yep, here for it.
Sarah: Somebody put all the good words in the blender; that came out –
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: – it was good. Yay! [Laughs]
Amanda: Yep. A noun, a setting, an adjective: what’ve we got?
Sarah: Yep, exactly! I am entirely here for all of this; let’s do it. So what else, what else rocked your world?
Amanda: Okay, my, my stack that I have next to me, they, there are six in the stack. And I will say, romance readers? BEA is not for you. Just going to –
Sarah: It really is very low on romance.
Amanda: I –
Sarah: They’re promoting YA and major titles now, I think.
Amanda: Yeah. I think Eloisa James was doing a signing, and Julia London was doing a signing, and Sarah MacLean, but it was ticketed. But a lot of the romance stuff happens at BookCon? They’re starting to do more of that.
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: There was an offsite event I think yesterday or maybe today at Books Are Magic. None of these are romance novels, but they all sound fucking awesome. So the first –
Sarah: It’s okay; we all read lots of things.
Amanda: Yes. The first one is called Frankly in Love –
Sarah: Ooh.
Amanda: – by David Yoon, and he is the husband of Nicola Yoon. She did Everything, Everything –
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: – and The Sun Is Also a Star, which were huge.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: And this is, like, a semi-autobiographical YA book.
Sarah: Ooh.
Amanda: It’s a Korean-American, and he falls in love with a young woman who is not Korean, and it’s kind of like about his own personal experience with – ‘cause Nicola Yoon is Jamaican-American, and David has, like, spoken about how his family wasn’t very accepting of Nicola until the two of them started having, like, children.
Sarah: Oh yeah, it’s always like, oh, wait, hold on, grandbabies.
Amanda: Yes. So Frank, in the book, turns to his friend Joy Song, and both Frank and Joy are in love with other people –
Sarah: Uh-huh.
Amanda: – that their parents won’t accept. So Frank and Joy pretend to be dating, while secretly dating other people to get their parents off their back. But it sounds really cute and really good. I’m excited to read it. And I just like touching it; I have it in my hands. [Laughs] It’s just, like, one of those books that has, like, a good, a good weight and heft to it, so I just like holding it?
Sarah: Ooh. Did you, did you wait in line for this one?
Amanda: I did not. That was in a bag of books given to me at a meeting.
Sarah: Oh, nice!
Amanda: [Laughs] There’s only one in here that I waited for. The rest I got the hookups on.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: The other one is Salvation Day by Kali Wallace, and this was given to me because of our Creep Squad podcast coming up, and –
Sarah: Oh!
Amanda: – it’s called, what is it, like, a claustrophobic thriller, because it happens in a closed setting. So there’s a virus that has awoken on this abandoned spaceship –
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: – and the crew doesn’t know. They, like, send someone up there to, like, investigate, and they don’t, like, know what’s going on. So, very excited about it.
Sarah: What is it, what is it about this that appeals to you? Just the, the extremely limited setting? The, it’s, it’s, it’s like –
Amanda: It gives me some –
Sarah: – forced proximity, except without sex.
Amanda: It gives me Alien vibes, with people being stuck on a spaceship with this horrible thing. There’s also, I love anything with a mysterious virus? There’s something about chemical creepiness and, like, biological creepiness that appeals to me?
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: Like, I’d ra- –
Sarah: So it’s biological and it’s a thriller.
Amanda: Yes. And, you know, the main character is a woman, which is also cool.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: Yes. Very excited about this one. And this is Berkley, and I think it’s getting released in hardcover, too.
Sarah: Oooh.
Amanda: Yeah. Now, the next one I waited in line for. This was the first book I picked up at BEA, called Queen of the Conquered, and it’s Caribbean-inspired fantasy, and it’s the author’s first fantasy novel, adult fantasy. I believe they wrote middle grade previously –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – and Young Adult.
Sarah: Oh, the cover has…wow – this is by Kacen Callender, yeah?
Amanda: Yes, who is, I believe, a Black transgender author, and the cover’s amazing. Snakes are having a moment, I feel like, on top of –
Sarah: They are having a moment, aren’t they? If you don’t like snakes, you’re kind of shit out of luck with book covers lately.
Amanda: Yeah. So I’m so excited. This mentions, like, magic and vengeance! And I’m here for it.
Sarah: The cover is – wow. And I see a lot of this – so it’s the snake, and it’s sort of curled up into a series of loops, and then the head is pointed down –
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: – and the, and the snake has pink flowers, and it’s on top of an image of a woman from the side who has brown skin and is wearing a white head covering; I can’t tell if it’s a bonnet or if it’s a head wrap. I’m going to guess it’s a wrap of some kind. You can’t really tell –
Amanda: It might be a bonnet, ‘cause the book mentions, like, I don’t know, giving vengeance against colonizers?
Sarah: Oh, it might be. It might be a bonnet of some sort. But anyway, that curled snake image is very cool.
Amanda: Yes. The third, nope, fourth book – this was also a secret one. I was, like, talking to someone at Hachette that I met at Book Lovers Con, and I just wanted to, like, say hi and, you know, just be on my way, and then someone from Orbit, I believe, was standing right next to her, and so we started talking, and we’re like, we’ve, I think we’ve emailed before! And I’m like, I think so too!
Sarah: [Laughs] Hello, person in three dimensions! How exciting!
Amanda: Yeah, and so she started telling me about this book that I don’t think they were giving away, but it was on display, and so she, like, sneakily gave me a copy. [Laughs]
Sarah: Ohhh?
Amanda: But it’s called The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and it’s –
Sarah: Whoa.
Amanda: – historical fiction with, like, a magical book. There’s, like, puzzles and other worlds and all the sorts of crazy, bonkers stuff that makes me excited. [Laughs] And it was blurbed by some really awesome people. Not that – I know blurbs, some people love ‘em, some people hate them. I like looking at blurbs? I like seeing who has, like, given this book a seal of approval, and how much weight you put on that is your own personal opinion, but yes, I’m very excited about this. It’s early 1900s. I wouldn’t say, like, coming of age; it might be a little older.
Sarah: But would you read the blurb?
Amanda: I can read it out loud.
Sarah: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, read the blurb. I want to hear it.
Amanda: So the main blurb at the top – there’s two on the back – the main blurb at the top is from Tamora Pierce –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – who I’m sure many of our listeners know. But it says, “Many worlds, vanishing doors, mind-cracking magic: I clung to each page, searching for answers. This is one of the most unique works of fiction I’ve ever read!”
Sarah: Oh my!
Amanda: Yes. And then Peng –
Zeb: Woof! Woof!
Sarah: Zeb!
Amanda: Oh, Zeb!
Sarah: Read on.
Amanda: And then the second blurb is by Peng Shepherd, who wrote The Book of M – I think it came out last year or the year before – and says, “Each page dazzles with things to be discovered: a mansion of priceless artefacts, a secret journal, a tantalizing quest through strange and beautiful places, and a love story that spans time, worlds, and magic. I couldn’t put it down.” So there’s magic and artifacts –
Sarah: Wow.
Amanda: – and the cover is beautiful. I’m curious what it’ll be, it’ll look like in its finished copy, like, what sort of cover treatment they’ll give it.
Sarah: Ooh.
Amanda: Yeah! It’s got all these gorgeous flowers and a, like a gilded doorknob?
Sarah: Wait, tell me the title again?
Amanda: The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
Sarah: There it is!
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: I kept, I kept trying to pull it up, and I kept getting “Cover coming soon,” which was not helpful! Oooh!
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: Flower border!
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: Flower border. So it’s sort of like a mix of treasure hunting and mystery and fantasy.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: I also noticed that there are a lot of books coming up that have to deal with books. They’re books about books –
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: – that are fantasy or mysteries.
Amanda: Yeah, two just –
Sarah: Books or libraries.
Amanda: Two just came out that were very book-heavy. I think, like, The Binding was one of them –
Sarah: Yep, yep.
Amanda: – and there was, like, another one that I can’t remember, but it was very similar.
Sarah: So what is it that you want to read about, what is it about this one that you want to read it?
Amanda: It just sounds fun! It sounds like fun and magical and, you know, whereas with, like, Salvation Day, the adventure is of, like, a dangerous kind.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: With this one, I get the feeling like the adventure is more of like a discovery kind, if that makes any sense. Like –
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: – what you discover about the world, about yourself, and I don’t know, I think those two would be interesting, like, paired together. [Laughs]
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: But I’m very interested in starting it and –
Sarah: Awesome.
Amanda: Yeah! The fifth book, I think it’s already out.
Sarah: Ooh! Before you go onto the next one, I was just looking at the Goodreads page, and Holly Hearts Books has a quote from this book?
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: “Sometimes I feel like there are doors lurking in the creases of every sentence, with periods for knobs and verbs for hinges.” Whoooa!
Amanda: Ohhh!
Sarah: So books as doors and keys and unlocking, and yeah, that’s –
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: – a lot of your catnip, isn’t it?
Amanda: I’m excited!
Sarah: Yep, okay! It was nice knowing you; I’ll see you when you’re done with this book.
Amanda: [Laughs] Good-bye!
Sarah: Yeah, bye!
Amanda: The last one I, or the fifth one, I think it’s already out. I’m not sure, ‘cause, like, the Goodreads listing is weird, but it’s called The Deceive- –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: Well, like, it brings up the audiobook version, but not the actual book-book.
Sarah: Right –
Amanda: But it’s –
Sarah: – that is weird.
Amanda: But it’s called The Deceivers by Kristen Simmons, and all you need to know is it’s a, a boarding school for con artists.
Sarah: Oh!
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: Okay!
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: You know, that’s, you know, space lesbian necromancers, boarding school for con artist.
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: Yeah, okay! I’m, I’m with you so far!
Amanda: Yeah! And I’m excited about it! And then the last one I didn’t know about, but it’s a book based on a podcast that I listen to. So the podcast is called The Bright Sessions. It’s a storytelling, fictional podcast about a therapist who sees and treats people with supernatural powers.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: And so each episode is kind of like a session that she has with one of her clients. And the creator of the podcast, Lauren Shippen, is writing a book, and the first book is called The Infinite Noise, and the main character is an empath, and –
Sarah: Ooh!
Amanda: – he’s also a running back for –
Sarah: As you do.
Amanda: – his high school, like, football team? [Laughs] And so it’s kind of like about him, and it’s, like, a queer love story, but it also has, like, people with supernatural abilities going to therapy. And I believe each book in the series is going to be about another supernatural individual.
Sarah: Oh wow.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: So each book will be a singular focus, whereas the podcast –
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: – is lots of different stories.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: Oh, that’s cool.
Amanda: Yeah, each book will be, like, a singular person.
Sarah: That is so cool.
Amanda: The podcast is really good if, you know, you like the, the story-, storytelling podcast medium, if you like Welcome to Night Vale, stuff like that, The Bright Sessions is very good. I’m a little behind on it, but, you know, from what I’ve listened to it, I’ve really loved it. And those are my, my six books that – and I’m sure, like –
Sarah: Nice!
Amanda: – I’ll probably do, like, another post, like a, a Hide Your Wallet post on even more books that I heard about and picked up, but these are, like, the six that I am really excited about.
Sarah: That is very cool. Were there any books that you learned about that you would have waited in line for? Or are you just sort of like, no, I can’t do lines?
Amanda: Hmmmm. At this point it’s a, like, I can’t do lines. [Laughs]
Sarah: Yeah. That’s one of the other things that’s so hard about BEA: it is so crowded with people sometimes.
Amanda: Yes. And I think more of the publishers are switching to either, like, not announcing when they’re dropping books – it’s called, like, a galley drop – or not announcing –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – really, ahead of time when they’re doing things, because people –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – they won’t line up, but they’ll, they’ll start milling around in the booth, and, like, things become very crowded in one central area because they’re just, like, waiting for these books to be brought out. Or publishers are doing a ticketed thing. They’ll be like, oh, tickets for this book will be available in the booth at 9 a.m., first come, first served, and then you need a ticket for whatever signing or galley drop is happening later in the afternoon at, like, 2 p.m. –
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: – or, or whatever. But, like, if you have meetings, a lot of the ticketed drops, like, I was busy. I didn’t have an opportunity –
Sarah: Right. You were –
Amanda: – to, like, go to the booth first and then go to my meeting. But the, I think the, the biggest book that was at BEA was the Ninth House that’s coming out by Leigh Bardugo. Another snake on the cover. I believe this is her first adult fantasy, and they were dropping tickets for a signing, they were dropping tickets at noon on Wednesday, which is when –
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: – BEA opened, and the signing was going to be at three, and I was –
Sarah: So people were booking it.
Amanda: I heard some people were waiting in line. They got, got in line to be let into BEA at 8 a.m. and were waiting for four hours, and then once they were letting people in, people were just, like, running to the Macmillan booth to get tickets.
Sarah: Holy God!
Amanda: And they were gone in, like, a matter of minutes.
Sarah: Oh man.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: I mean, on one hand, on one hand, that’s really cool that people are going to wait in line for a book. Like, that’s – enthusiasm, books: good. On the other hand, that sounds exhausting.
Amanda: Yes. Especially, you know, some people were bummed ‘cause, like, oh, I was sitting and, like, waiting to be let in at 8 a.m., and then, like, the security guards had to move all these people, and then, like, they opened the stanchions on the other end from where I had been waiting, and –
Sarah: Oy.
Amanda: Yeah. It seemed like a big clusterfuck, and that was pretty much the only opportunity at BEA to get a copy of Ninth House, and Wednesday is not the most attended of the three days? It’s usually, like, a set-up day; it’s a half day.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: Yeah, I was on a bus trying to get there by noon, and I feel like even if I got there –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – at noon, I probably wouldn’t get one, knowing that there had been people already lining up four hours in advance. So –
Sarah: For that one – wow.
Amanda: For that one book. I think they might be doing one thing for Ninth House at BEA, or at BookCon.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: So that, there’s always one most-coveted ARC to get.
Sarah: There really is, isn’t there?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: And if you think about it, like, in a year, the book will be out?
Amanda: Yeah. But –
Sarah: It’s a very limited time, it has a very limited time span of, of, of – what’s the word I’m looking for? – cachet, I guess.
Amanda: The book comes out in, in October, so less than six months.
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: But there’s some scandal going around.
Sarah: [Gasps] No!
Amanda: Yes! So before –
Sarah: Oh –
Amanda: – before BEA, author Cora Carmack tweeted that she had seen someone selling one of her ARCs for seventy dollars on eBay, and she –
Sarah: This does happen, yes.
Amanda: – she’s like, please don’t do this. The book will eventually be out. These aren’t supposed to be sold. She’s like – and she was offering, she was like, if you take that seventy dollars you would on this ARC and you donate it to, like, the epilepsy fund that she was promoting – ‘cause I believe Cora has epilepsy – or whatever, like, I will send you some, like, exclusive swag or, like, a preview chapter, something that like. She’s like –
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: – don’t support these ARC sellers. Please use your money to do something else with it. And so –
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: – that was going around like the day before BEA happened. Well, that same ARC seller managed to get a copy of the Ninth House –
Sarah: [Gasps] Oh no!
Amanda: – at BEA, and – but six, six hours later –
Sarah: Holy shit.
Amanda: – it was up on eBay for over two hundred dollars asking price.
Sarah: Good God!
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: Oh, that is just, that is really sad!
Amanda: People were pissed.
Sarah: Who was angry about it? The publisher and the author and other people who waited in line?
Amanda: Yeah! I mean, it stinks that, you know, some people wait in line for ARCs and galleys of books they really want and are really excited about, and you know, they could be booksellers, librarians, whoever, and then to have people take advantage of this opportunity to get these awesome free books and just sell them? Like, that sucks! I was like, this is a, this is why we can’t have nice things moment, you know? And I don’t think this’ll happen or have any terrible negative effects, but you know, it, it’s kind of shitty, and it makes me think that if this becomes a trend and more and more people start selling ARCs, does that mean publishers won’t produce as many ARCs anymore? Or will they be more selective on who gets them? So I don’t think it, it’s happening now, but if it’s a repeat thing, I definitely think publishers might start revisiting how they give out advance copies and to whom.
Sarah: I honestly don’t think that they will. This has been going on for such a long time in so many different ways, and in the long run, it’s publicity.
Amanda: Yeah, I guess.
Sarah: I mean, it sucks, it’s annoying, you can’t control it, but if a book is so desired that it has a monetary value in its unfinished form, it, it’ll, it’ll be sold in its unfinished form, because there’s, you know, there’s value. Someone, if someone’s willing to pay for it, then it’ll be sold at that price. It sucks, sucks out loud sideways, but this is all good publicity also.
Amanda: This reminds me of Aarya’s post that went up today about anticipated releases and, you know, reading on release day –
Sarah: Yes!
Amanda: – and as I’ve gotten older, I don’t have that feeling of, I have to read this right now. There are –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – no books out there or that I’m looking forward to so much that I can’t wait the six months or even a year to pub date and I would drop two hundred dollars on getting an advance copy. There, there’s no case that would work for me that I would do that. And for, like, anticipated releases, I can’t remember the last time something hit my Kindle at midnight or I got something that I was like, well, fuck all of my other books; I have to read this right this second. So.
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: I don’t know.
Sarah: Your priorities change.
Amanda: And I’m not a patient person by any means!
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: But I just can’t imagine, you know, spending that money buying an advance copy for a book that I can’t wait a few months for.
Sarah: Well, that was, the same thing happened with print copies of Fifty Shades before it was published in the States. It, print copies were hundreds and hundreds of dollars because there were so few of them. It’s scarcity and exclusivity; not only is there a scare number of them, but you also get the exclusivity of being able and having read something that isn’t out yet. That counts also for a lot.
Amanda: I guess.
Sarah: It’s –
Amanda: I just don’t get it!
Sarah: [Laughs] Well, here’s a question: what was the name of the book that we were talking about earlier that is by, it is the, the, the woman on the cover with the snake and the bonnet?
Amanda: Queen of the Conquered.
Sarah: Queen of the Conquered, thank you. I think – I could be wrong, but I think that the snake on Queen of the Conquered and the snake on –
Amanda: Ninth House? Same snake. Yeah.
Sarah: – Ninth House is the same –
Amanda: Same snake. I was talking to – [laughs] –
Sarah: It is ex- –
Amanda: – someone about it is. I was like, I hope that snake is getting some top billing! I hope they have, like –
Sarah: Yeah, that is absolutely the same exact snake.
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: Man. This, guys, this snake is going to be more popular than all those cover models that showed up on the same cover for ages.
Amanda: [Laughs] Yep! This snake is going to have some, like, prime cover credits.
Sarah: That is abs- – I’m looking at it very closely; it is absolutely the same snake.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: That’s amazing. So basically, you are actually a fangirl of this snake is the thing.
Amanda: I mean, I like snakes! Not going to lie, we used to have some growing up, and I’ve, I’ve caught wild s- – here’s a, a redneck story, two of them, that involve snakes. My brother and I once –
Sarah: Oh, okay!
Amanda: – trapped a hog snake under an old, unused fish tank that we had out in the yard –
Sarah: Ahhh!
Amanda: – with just using a broom. [Laughs]
Sarah: As you do.
Amanda: A broom and an old aquarium, we trapped a hog snake in the yard, and then there was one time where, like, I was feeding our chickens, and I reached into the feed, and there was a snake in there, and I just picked up the snake and tossed it on the grass.
Sarah: Holy cow.
Amanda: Snakes don’t bother me.
Sarah: Wow, apparently not! You’re a fangirl of them on covers.
Amanda: I love snakes! Not going to lie!
Sarah: [Laughs] Oh man. You know, it’s, it’s funny: I, I remember holding onto ARCs because I thought that they were so incredibly cool! Like, I couldn’t believe I had this early copy of a book, and I don’t know if I told you this: when I moved, I went down to the basement – well, first, the first person who ever sent me ARCs was Erin Galloway when she was at Dorchester, and I had no idea that getting books early was a thing, and then I emailed her and I was like, well, do you want these back? And she was like, no?
Amanda: She’s like, please no, don’t.
Sarah: No, no! Please, no! No. What am I supposed to do with them? Well, you can recycle them. And I was like, what? No! I can’t – but it – no! And it was, it was a bound galley; I think it even had, like, a plain paper cover? I kept it, and this was probably 2006. So we moved in winter of 2010 – no, excuse me, 2015; even later, wow – 2015 is when we moved, so this was 2006 to 2015. I am going through all of the boxes of stuff in my basement, and I come across a box of ARCs from that period of time because I couldn’t get rid of them. Now I was able to recycle them, but at the time I was horrified by the idea.
Amanda: Well, sometimes – so I will shelve my ARCs that I read and I love, but sometimes I’ll get an advance copy, and then I’ll get, like, the finished book, but with my ARCs, please – I’m going to, I know when this goes up I’m going to hear a collective gasp from the world – I dog-ear my pages on my ARCs.
Sarah: Well, of course! Why wouldn’t you?!
Amanda: I dog-ear them, and I have, like, marginalia and, like, write in them, because, like, when I’m doing a review, if there’s a –
Sarah: Why would this be a problem?
Amanda: ‘Cause some people have feelings about dog-earing pages. Like, I would never do it to a library book, but if it –
Sarah: Sometimes I tear the pages out of an ARC and I use it to start the grill.
[Laughter]
Sarah: Sometimes they are used to start the smoker, and then we smoke a whole chicken on the ARC, on the ARC fire. Burning the books! Well, I mean, they’re already out, and I can only do things with, like, with, I can only recycle them.
Amanda: Yeah. And so I’ll dog-ear them for quotes that I want to revisit if I’m writing the review or whatever.
Sarah: Of course!
Amanda: And if I get a finished copy, then I usually save it if we do a giveaway, and I remember, I was talking to Cindy, who is Helen Hoang’s editor at Penguin Random House, and I was –
Sarah: Mm-hmm! Cindy Hwang at Penguin, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. She’s great, and I was, I was talking to her about, like, there’s only one author that I care about getting my book signed, and that’s Helen, and she’s like, oh well, The Ripped Bodice is selling signed copies. I was like, yeah, I know, but I would want her to sign my beat-up ARC with all of, like, the pages folded that I have of scenes that I loved and –
Sarah: Yeah!
Amanda: – like, I would want – [laughs] –
Sarah: Makes total sense!
Amanda: – her to sign my copy.
Sarah: I totally understand this! I’m with you a hundred percent!
Amanda: So my –
Sarah: Yeah, it’s, well, it’s an artifact; when you do that, you’re creating an artifact. You’re creating an artifact of your reading experience, of course!
Amanda: Yeah, and my shelves are just like a mishmash of, like, ARCs; some are, like, lovely with, like, the cover, and some are just like bound manuscripts that I have to put a label on the spine so I know what the hell it is on my shelf, and – it’s a, my – [laughs] – shelves are just like the Island of Misfit Children, essentially. It’s just all shapes and sizes of books. But BEA was fine. I –
Sarah: Did you, did you get a sort of a, a lift of, of, like, being around all the people who were as interested and excited about books as you are?
Amanda: There, yes. I will say, as exhausted as you are, there is just something about being around book people and talking to book people about books. There is, like, a feeling, and everyone was so nice and lovely that I stopped and talked to and schmoozed with, and it was great! But, you know, when I got back home to Boston, I crashed so hard. Today I’ve been napping my face off. It takes a lot out of you, especially if you’re an introvert like me and just –
Sarah: Oh –
Amanda: – being around crowds sucks all of your energy?
Sarah: Oh yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s why I don’t like to go.
[Laughter]
Sarah: The cost is too high!
Amanda: There, there is a, like a two-day recovery period after that. And I can only imagine what it would be like to go to BookCon this year. My roommate was thankful, ‘cause normally they stay for BEA and BookCon, and then have to go to work the next day, so they had BEA Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; BookCon Saturday, Sunday; and then back to the office on Monday. I don’t envy any of the publishing people who have to do that.
Sarah: Oh yeah. It’s a lot. And it’s, and, and it sounds like BookCon is just getting bigger and bigger –
Amanda: It is.
Sarah: – with more and more people.
Amanda: It so is. I think Elyse asked me last night, she’s like, do you think it’s worth going to BookCon as a reader? I’m like –
Sarah: No.
Amanda: – you? No. Don’t, don’t do that to yourself.
Sarah: Why?
Amanda: [Laughs] I was like, honestly, Elyse, you could probably just go to BEA and be fine. There’s not as much reader fan stuff, obviously, at BEA, ‘cause that’s not what it’s for, but if you hate being around crowds and having to throw some ‘bows just to get a book? No, do not go to BookCon. This year there were more romance events at Book-, BookCon than last year, so that’s heartening, but it’s primarily YA-focused. You know, maybe that’ll change. Who knows?
Sarah: I saw a lot of Instagram coverage of the audiobooks area too. Now that may be –
Amanda: I didn’t even go to the audiobooks area.
Sarah: It may be because I follow a bunch of audiobook people, but they seem to have a lot of cool stuff going on.
Amanda: Interesting! Was that, do you know if that was only for BookCon?
Sarah: It, they had like a, like a reading area –
Amanda: Ooh!
Sarah: – and it was like The Baby-Sitters Club reading area.
Amanda: Oh, I saw that! Alyssa Cole took, like, a really cute photo! That was not there at BEA.
Sarah: Well, I know that she wrote an Audible-exclusive story.
Amanda: Ohhh!
Sarah: It’s like The A.I. Who Loved Me or something like that.
Amanda: Oh!
Sarah: Audible’s Baby-Sitters Clubhouse at BookCon.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: Yeah. That, that was, that –
Amanda: They did not have it at BEA.
Sarah: – at BEA proper. Well, I mean, if, if you’re, if you’re bringing in an audience that’s extremely Instagram-connected, that makes total sense.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: All right, so, last question: what are you reading?
Amanda: Oh boy. I guess I’ll talk about Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey. And there’s a review coming, but I’m torn because I love Bailey’s writing; I like her sex scenes a lot; she does really good, hot sex scenes; but this trope hinges on the off-limits younger sister sort of trope, which is not my favorite, because I’m of the opinion that who my brother dates is none of my Goddamn business, to be honest. He’s twenty-five. I can have my opinions if that person is good enough for him or whatever, but –
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: – you know, I don’t like kind of like the heroine being treated like chattel, essentially, of, like, you can’t touch her, you can’t look at her, don’t even talk to her, and she’s like a twenty-three-year-old woman. She’s known the he- –
Sarah: That –
Amanda: – hero –
Sarah: – never works for me.
Amanda: Yeah. She’s known the hero all of her life. They grew up together, and it’s, you know, her brother’s best friend, and the, the hero remarks on the fact that she’s, you know, Steven’s “little sister.” I was like, she’s twenty-three! She’s twenty-three years old. And it’s something that even, like, comes up during, like, their first sex scene.
Sarah: Wait, what?
Amanda: Yeah. I don’t have the book handy. It’s somewhere. And I’ll probably mention it in the review. But it’s just, at what point does a, does a problem become, like, this weird fixation? You know what I mean?
[Laughter]
Amanda: Like, it’s, like, he mentions it so much, it seems like it’s a fetish at this point. So I’m having mixed feelings.
Sarah: Yeah. The, the whole you-can’t-date-my-sibling trope really doesn’t work well for me, because if you’re friends with this person, why wouldn’t they, why wouldn’t you know that they were a good person? If you’re friends with someone who you don’t want to be with your sibling, why are you friends with them?
Amanda: And it’s not even, like, dating. Like, the hero is a baseball star who had a career-ending injury. He’s kind of wallowing in sadness. The heroine is trying to get him out of it. She, like, goes to his apartment and is like, we need to clean your apartment. You need food in here. Like, you need to get your shit together. And, you know, the heroine’s brother and hero’s best friend Steven, like, doesn’t even want his friend talking to his sister.
Sarah: I don’t understand!
Amanda: Like, it’s, he’s like, why are you talking to Georgie? Like, why was Georgie at your apartment? Like, it’s, goes far more than dating. For example, the hero is supposed to fix the heroine’s fireplace, and he’s like, I don’t even have her phone number to text her that, like, I’m running late or I might miss the appointment, but he’s like, but I can’t ask Steven ‘cause he’d flip out that I was asking for his sister’s phone number.
Sarah: What?
Amanda: Yeah. They’re just making it a big deal, and I don’t think it should be a big deal.
Sarah: Yeah, I understand. I totally understand.
Amanda: So that’s –
Sarah: Are you going to keep going?
Amanda: I mean, I don’t know. I, I don’t want to DNF it. It’s not, like, a bad book. It’s just, like, a trope that I don’t particularly enjoy, and it’s giving me some good examples of why I don’t enjoy this trope? I think we all have an example of, we don’t like this trope, but so-and-so, like, my favorite author did it, and I loved it. You know, we all have our authors who can take something that we might not enjoy or might not exactly like but write it in such a way that you’re like, okay, this is my exception to the rule.
Sarah: Yeah, absolutely! That’s definitely happened to me.
Amanda: And perhaps I was hoping this would be my exception to the rule. And it is not. I don’t necessarily think the problem is the book, because there are certain people who really like this trope, and it could really work for them in this instance, but I know it’s not for me.
Sarah: When the problem is the conflict, what ends up happening is that the, the book almost has to make a double effort to convince you that this, this conflict is real.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: And if, and if you think that the narrative is just insisting on the conflict because it’s the conflict, it’s like telling me that the reason you always do, the, the reason that we do something this way is because that’s the way we’ve always done it. My reaction is going to be like, okay, so?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: Why are we still doing it? Like, I am not convinced. And if you’re not convinced, you’re not convinced!
Amanda: Yeah! And in a complete one-eighty, the book I have lined up after this is The Girl in Red by Christina Henry, who wrote these really fucked-up fairytale retellings? She, I reviewed Alice.
Sarah: Yes?
Amanda: I think Carrie reviewed The Mermaid. She has one, I think it’s called Hook, for Peter Pan [Lost Boy], and this is her Little Red Riding Hood retelling, and I’m super excited about it. So The Girl in Red is next, a completely different book than Fix Her Up – [laughs] – but I’m excited about it, and the cover is –
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: – the cover should be a poster, in my opinion.
Sarah: [Laughs] Is there a snake?
Amanda: No snake! But there’s a –
Sarah: I’m very disappointed.
Amanda: – there’s a wolf, and, like, the wolf’s head is kind of like, the fur looks like grass? So, like, the top half of the cover is a girl in a red hoodie with an ax walking through a forest, and the ground of that forest is the, like, back and fur of this wolf that is, like, glowering at you from the cover.
[music]
Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this episode. If you would like to find Amanda, she is online at Twitter, @_ImAnAdult, on Instagram @_imanadult, but she also runs the @SmartBitches Instagram and is really good at it, so if you want to get book recommendations every Wednesday @SmartBitches Instagram, Amanda will hook you up.
If you have books that you want to tell us about that you know are coming out this year, we would love to hear about them, because I don’t know if you know this, but there’s a lot of books published, like, every hour, but you can email us and tell us what you want to read at [email protected], because we love hearing from you. And if you’d like to leave a voicemail you can do so at 1-201-371-3272. If you tell me a bad joke, it’s going to be awesome, because you know how much I love those. And I have a really bad one at the end of this episode, so keep listening, ‘cause it’s really terrible. [Laughs]
This week’s episode and transcript are being brought to you by our most excellent Patreon community. If you have supported the show with a monthly pledge – and the monthly pledges start at one entire dollar – you are helping keep the show going, and I deeply appreciate it. If you’d like to have a look at our reward tiers, you can take a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. And as always, I am deeply, deeply thankful for your support, so thank you!
The music you are listening to is provided by Sassy Outwater. This is Peatbog Faeries, and this is their live album Live @ 25, which is seriously fun to listen to. This track is “Shifting Peat and Feet,” and you can find it at Amazon, on iTunes, and you can find out more about the Peatbog Faeries at their website, peatbogfaeries.com, because that’s what, obviously what it would be, right?
Coming up on Smart Bitches: we have so many new things coming up, I’m so excited. First, we have part one of our monthly Whatcha Reading? discussion, where we all talk about what books have grabbed hold of us, and y’all love this feature so much that you requested we do it more than once, so we do it twice a month now! We also have new reviews of much-anticipated titles; a new Bachelorette recap, which are back by popular demand; and we have a Cover Snark, because you should start your week off with just the right amount of flat male nipples and inexplicable hair patterns. Plus we have Books on Sale and Help a Bitch Out, and I hope you will come and hang out with us.
What is with describing men’s nipples as flat male nipples? Like, was I going to be worried that they were not flat, that they were in some way rotund, that they were spherical nipples? I don’t – why is it always flat male nipples? I don’t understand. But anyway. Enough about me.
I will have links to all of the books that we discussed, and of course there were many, ‘cause Amanda was at BEA and that’s a dangerous place – and I will have links to the different vendors we talked about as well, including Taza Chocolate and Wick and Fable Candles if you too like candles as much as Amanda does.
But now it’s time for the terrible joke, because that’s how I end every episode.
Why should you not ever spell the word “part” backwards?
Give up? Why should you not ever spell the word “part” backwards?
It’s a trap!
[Laughs] It’s a trap! That – it’s a trap! – that joke is from asstronaut_ on Reddit. Thank you! [Laughs more] It’s a trap!
On behalf of Amanda and myself, we wish you the very best of reading this weekend, and we will see you back here next week.
[whirling music]
This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.
I am so confused by this Thursday podcast. I’ve checked my calendar at least three times.
@Adeliza – Me too!
Me three!!
I know that there are people who don’t think this way, but I also wouldn’t pay $200 for a book when the authors/creators would not be getting ANY of that money. I’m not a fan of pirating things for that reason.
It’s my fault! I did a big whoops and published it early. Because the post feeds into other things, we couldn’t undo it without putting a glitch in the Matrix.
I cannot wait to read Gideon The Ninth! I’ve been anticipating it for months.
On the “Books about books” vibe. I’m super interested in “The Library Of The Unwritten” by AJ Hackwith coming out in October.
“In the first book in a brilliant new fantasy series, books that aren’t finished by their authors reside in the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, and it is up to the Librarian to track down any restless characters who emerge from those unfinished stories.
Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing– a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.
But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil’s Bible. The text of the Devil’s Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell….and Earth.”