Eight months ago, at the end of April, I embarked a(nother) journey: this one to tell the story of a group of teenagers. Most of my stories start with a question. The questions for this story was: what makes a bully? what could abuse look like if the victim was brainwashed? how does trauma change people? how does unconscious racism / bias affect even our most innocent behaviors? Eight months, 141,030 words, 546 pages, 50 Book Club Discussion questions, the obligatory back matter, and so many excerpts (re-reading it, I really love Jake who is what my daughters call “a background of a background character”) it’s a wonder I didn’t get told to stop it, and many tears later: it is here! 

If you’re a Kindle reader, you can get a copy here and from now until January 31, 2024, the price is only $1.99 (!); Beginning this Friday, January 5, 2024, you can order the paperback or hardback version from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or anywhere else as well, but you can order it now from here ; doing so will save you money–and you might find some goodies come along as well. The paperback version via Amazon is $16.99; the hardback copy is $22.99. Ordering from the Hartprints Bookstore, the paperback version is $12.99; hardback direct is $18.99

I’m also really happy with the back blurb: 

A lot of thought went into the cover design of the story, as well as the interior design, and it me a very long time to finesse it. For the section breaks, I told a science lesson / mini story about the life cycle of stars. This was really fun for me because it was so clearly symbolic of what the girls experienced: the first section is the “T-Tauri” phase, the second was the “Main Sequence” phase, followed by the “Supernova” phase.

The chapter headings combined the rowan berries with the stars and were also goose-pimply wonderful: 

Overall, I’m proud of this story. This one, and Taramul Vieslor , are both very complex stories with a lot of different themes, which makes writing them, and keeping everything organized, was also interesting. Beyond all that, though, I’m mostly proud of this story because it pushed me further. Apricot, the chapter, is based on a series of nightmares that I really do have. They are terrifying and are enough to keep me from sleeping. Writing that scene meant I had to really examine these nightmares, and it bought up a lot. 

The end of a book is bittersweet. I’m happy to have reached the end, but the characters are, by this time, friends and, once the last word is written, most of them stop shadowing me almost immediately. Goodbyes are not my strength. Still, I’ve spent the last two days re-reading this one, and I’m looking forward to the conversations it sparks. 

If you read it, please let me know what you think in whatever format you’re comfortable with: reviews, comments below, or directly.